Shine On Rainy Day
by QuillPenAndAnInkJar
Summary: Molly is an ordinary girl who hasn't read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies. But when she and seven other children are brought back in time to Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts, she must learn how to get by in a world she didn't know existed. (Slight AU. Rated K plus for action and implied language.)
1. A Good Thing

**Hi! I came up with the idea for this story while looking up information on the books and movies online. (Before then, I had never read the Harry Potter books - I know, crazy, right?) I thought it would be interesting to see someone who lived in a world where the books were commonplace, but she had never read them - and then she becomes a part of the story herself. I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Studios - not me.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1:**_

 _ **A Good Thing**_

" _He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on - he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect_ them _.  
_ _How very wrong he was."_

Mr. and Mrs. Evans, of number seventeen, Tumbleweed Road, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

However, their daughter, Molly, was the exact opposite. She was the kind of girl who skipped through forests looking for fairies, who knew the lines of every Disney movie by heart, whose favorite series of books was _The Land of Stories_.

Molly had bluish-gray eyes and brown hair brushed into a bob. Her lips were a natural pink, and freckles adorned her face. She wore purple glasses decorated with images of cartoon flowers, and other than when she was at school, her ukulele was always by her side.

Molly went to a school in upstate New York, but she loathed it. She loved to learn, but the children at school were never that nice to her. The only person she could rely on was a girl named Caitlyn, who looked just like Molly but had longer hair and had no need for glasses.

Caitlyn and Molly were friends for quite a long time, being in the same school since kindergarten. Like many good friends, they had quarrels every now and then. Once, the two were in their school's library, and Caitlyn was asking Molly why she never read the Harry Potter books.

"Because I don't want to," Molly said simply.

"But they're so good!" Caitlyn said. "And the author's amazing. Like, listen to this."

She opened up one of the later books and began quoting from it, something about blood and death and stuff like that. Molly tried to listen, but it was hard. At that point, she didn't have any interest in the books.

But quarrels always happen, and the girls were extremely good friends. Unfortunately for them, however, our story begins at the end of fifth grade, when Caitlyn was to move to another school in the area.

The day dragged on, like always, as the girls waited for the bell that would whisk them away to summer vacation. But just before the last day of school ended, it occurred to Molly that she might never see Caitlyn again - in a town like the one the girls lived in, in a school large enough to take students from many different districts, it was extremely hard to meet up with people that you didn't know the email address of. She was tempted to ask Caitlyn how they could get together eventually, but by the time school had ended, she hadn't had the chance - she had only gotten to say goodbye to Caitlyn before parting.

Almost as soon as Molly had arrived home, it was time to pack. The family was going on their yearly trip to Walt Disney World for her birthday, and even though they weren't leaving for about a month, the family liked to get things done ahead of time.

Honestly, however, the packing was to distract them from the big questions they had. The school Molly was going to was hiring a new principal, and Mrs. Evans thought that it would be a perfect time to transfer to another school - maybe one in the nearby town where Molly's mom worked. Mr. Evans wasn't so sure. He thought that the family could at least give the new principal a chance.

Molly wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

The family still hadn't made a final decision by the time the vacation was due to start. They packed up the car and drove off to Florida, stopping along the way for bathroom breaks and meals at Longhorn Steakhouse after Longhorn Steakhouse, with a Carrabba's mixed in here and there for good measure.

After a few days of travelling, the Evans family arrived in Lake Buena Vista, ready for the vacation of their lives. But that vacation would soon become longer than expected.

* * *

August 17th was Molly's birthday, and the family was having a little break in their room at the Port Orleans resort when they heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," Molly said.

She hopped up from the chair that she was reading in and opened the door - and to her surprise, there was nobody there. She looked all around the doorframe to see if the knocker had left anything.

The only sign that someone was actually there was a white envelope with Molly's name on it laying on the ground.

Cautiously, Molly picked up the envelope and turned it over. It had a wax seal! Molly had never seen a letter that was sealed with wax, so she was very excited - she was the kind of girl who liked books made of paper, music made of vinyl, and TV shows in black and white (Bewitched was her favorite).

The seal didn't look like the stickers she had seen of clumps of red - sometimes with a rose on them - stuck to letters. In fact, it wasn't even red - although it did have some red in it. It seemed to have some sort of logo for something on it - a conglomeration of different animals, namely a lion, a snake, a badger (for some reason), and a bird of some sort - an eagle, maybe? She couldn't tell from just the seal.

"Mom, I found this weird letter at the door," Molly said.

"Let me see," Mrs. Evans said, reaching her hand out for the envelope.

Molly gave her mother the envelope, and the woman studied the writing on the front and the seal on the back.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad, so I guess you can open it," she said, giving the envelope back to her daughter.

Carefully, Molly ripped the paper of the envelope so as not to break the seal - this was something she was going to save. She took a piece of paper out of the envelope, throwing the now-unnecessary wrapper in the garbage can. The paper was covered in a fancy script, almost as if it had been written with a quill pen.

The girl silently read the letter, which read:

Hello Molly!

Welcome to our program at Hogwarts! You are invited to join us for your first year of wizardry training. We understand it may be hard to arrive at the normal entrance to Hogwarts in England, so we have set up another way to the school. Simply bring this letter to the entrance of Universal Orlando's Universal Studios (when you get to the entrance, go to the right - as opposed to the left) and a representative will be waiting for you at the entrance of the King's Cross train station. You can arrive for the term whenever you please. Please do not come with anyone else other than the other people who have letters. Thank you, and we cannot wait to have you in class!

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

Graduate of Hogwarts, The Boy Who Lived, Et Cetera

Not everything made sense to the young girl, who had just turned 11 a few minutes before, but she did recognize Universal Orlando. She had been there a few times - once to actually go to the parks, the rest of the time to eat lunch at Margaritaville and shop for clothes at Fresh Produce with her mother. She had heard that they had opened a Harry Potter land at Universal, but she had never been. What was going on?

Molly showed her mother the letter, and her mother frowned in perplexity. "Is this supposed to be some sort of prank?" she asked.

"I don't know," Molly admitted. "I guess I could try it."

Mrs. Evans sighed. "Alright, but I don't want you gone for too long," she said. "I mean, if you _are_ gone for a while, just call me or something, okay?"

Molly smiled. "Okay, Mom."

Mrs. Evans was the kind of mother that always wanted the best for her child. She never wanted any harm to come to her child, and any moment that Molly was out of her sight was a moment in which her pride and joy could be taken away from her.

"We'll go tomorrow, after our last day at the parks," Mrs. Evans said. "I'll drop you off at the entrance of the park, and you can go in and do whatever you have to do."

"Thanks," Molly said.

* * *

After the Evans family left the parks the next day, they began their drive home - with a quick detour to drop Molly off at Universal.

Mrs. Evans walked Molly up to the bustle of City Walk.

"Alright, so you know our home number," the woman said.

"Yes, Mom," Molly said.

"And Dad's cell."

"Yes, Mom." Molly's tone grew increasingly annoyed.

"And our work numbers."

Molly rolled her eyes. "Mom, I'll be fine. At least we don't have to worry about picking a school for the year."

Mrs. Evans smiled. "That _is_ true."

Molly hugged her mother one last time. "I love you, Mom," she said.

"Me too," Mrs. Evans said, hugging Molly back.

She gave Molly her phone and waved as her little girl walked into the park on her own.

Molly, although worried she might get lost, was extremely excited to be in a theme park all alone. She picked up a map at the front entrance and started walking over to the park she needed to get to.

A small line of children was forming at the entrance to Universal Studios, and Molly positioned herself at the end of it. Each child had a letter just like hers and was (probably) going to the same place. Slowly, the line moved forward, and the children walked into the park.

Eventually, Molly got to the front of the line.

"Can I see your ticket, please?" the woman scanning tickets said.

"I have this," Molly said, holding up her letter uncertainly.

The woman nodded. "I see," she said. "Go on in."

Molly smiled. It had worked!

"Thank you!" she said.

She turned to walk into the park and maybe meet the other people that were going to Hogwarts. As she looked down at the map to see where she was going, she suddenly felt a bump from in front of her.

Stumbling back, she raised her head to see a girl standing in front of her. The girl was a few inches taller than her and had golden hair pulled back into the loosest of braids.

"Hi!" the girl said. "Are you going to Hogwarts, too?"

Molly nodded, suddenly shy.

"Cool!" She stuck out her hand. "I'm Zoë. What's your name?"

Molly reached out and shook Zoë's hand. "I'm Molly - Molly Evans."

"So what House do you think you're going to be in?" Zoë said.

"Um...I don't know? I guess you probably have to wait until you get there to tell," Molly said, unsure of herself.

"Well, yeah, you do, but you can always guess!" Zoë said. "I think I'm going to be in Slytherin, but I'm not sure."

Molly nodded, though she wasn't really sure what she was nodding to.

"So what do we need to get?"

Zoë gaped. "You didn't see the list?"

Molly shook her head. "It wasn't in the envelope."

"Really?" Zoë said. "I got it in mine. Oh, well, then - let's meet that representative the letter mentioned."

The girls walked over to the area they needed to go to, Molly occasionally consulting the map for directions. Eventually, they made it to the area where they needed to go.

"Why does this place look like London?" Molly asked.

Zoë laughed. "Because it _is_ London - or at least it's supposed to be."

"Oh," Molly said, slightly bewildered. "Okay. So where's the representative?"

Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, and a boy with messy black hair and a Rubik's Cube was standing directly behind her.

"Hi there," the boy said. "The name's Jonah. What's yours?"

"Oh, me?" Molly said. "My name's Molly." Cautiously, she reached her hand out for a shake. Jonah grabbed it and shook it firmly.

"Did you get the letter, too?" he said.

Molly and Zoë nodded. "I don't really know what a lot of it means," Molly admitted, "but I'm excited."

Jonah nodded in agreement. "Hey, have you seen anyone else with a letter?"

"Well," Molly explained, "I think I saw everyone at the front when we were showing the worker our letters, but I haven't seen them since."

Suddenly, a girl in the distance caught her eye. In her hand was the wrinkled, stained paper that the letters had been written on.

"I think I see one now!" Molly said, running up to greet the girl.

The new girl was about Molly's height, with curly golden hair pulled back into a tiny bun. Her eyes sparkled with joy and awe.

"Hello!" Molly said. "Are you going to...uh…" She stole a glance at her letter. "...Hogwarts?"

The girl nodded. "I'm Ava."

"Oh, that's such a pretty name!" Molly said. "My name's Molly."

"Cool!" Ava said, and continued looking around. "It's so beautiful here," she said. "It looks just like the movies!"

Molly giggled nervously.

"My friends Beatrix and Stella are probably on their way," Ava said. She turned around and waved overtly. "Beatrix! Stella! Get over here!"

A girl in the distance, with a letter in her hand, started running over to the group that was starting to form in the middle of "London." Her hair flew behind her, like a golden ocean. Standing next to her was a girl with shoulder-length black hair and a t-shirt for _In the Heights_.

"Hello," the golden-haired girl said shyly and out of breath, with a hint of a British accent. "I'm -"

"Don't worry, Beatrix, I've introduced you already - and you, too, Stella." Ava said. "This is Molly."

"Hi," Molly waved. "You got the letter, too?"

Beatrix held up the stained paper. "I wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Do you know if there's anyone else coming?" Molly asked. Before anyone could answer, she heard another girl's voice.

"Jonah!" the girl screamed. Molly turned around to see a girl with short pink and brown hair run over and hug Jonah.

"Okay, Mackenzie, you don't have to choke me," he said. "I didn't know you got the letter, too."

"This is SO COOL!" the girl, who Molly assumed to be Mackenzie, said, nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

"Is anyone else -" Molly tried to say, but was interrupted by a girl yelling out "AVA!"

 _Not again,_ Molly thought.

An extremely tall girl with brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail wrapped Ava up in a huge hug. "This is Madison," Ava explained.

"Hi," Molly said. "I'm Molly."

"Hi," Madison said, still clinging to Ava.

Suddenly, a rumble of thunder shook the sky.

"What was that?" Mackenzie said.

"I don't know," Zoë replied. "It might've been thunder."

"Mom didn't tell me it was going to rain," Molly said. Quickly, she took out Mrs. Evans's phone and checked the Weather app. The image said that it would be sunny the entire day. _Nice job, internet,_ Molly thought.

A drop of rain hit Molly's head. Then another hit Mackenzie. Then two hit Beatrix - one on her shoulder and one on her arm. Finally, the sky opened, and rain poured down on the children.

"What's going on?" Stella said as the group huddled together.

A burst of lightning struck the clouds. The world almost seemed to ripple as the thunder rolled over Orlando.

Suddenly, the sound of thunder raced over the children, and the ground began to vibrate under Molly's feet. Her stomach shook with fear and nausea. She closed her eyes to calm herself...and then the shaking stopped.

When she opened her eyes, everything looked exactly the same - but somehow more accurate. The rain was gone, replaced with a sweltering fog. The tourists that had been pacing the park until their Express Pass for the Barney show was ready (or something like that - Molly wasn't a Universal Studios scholar) had been replaced by people that actually looked British.

Slowly, the children around Molly started to open their eyes, and they looked around in awe.

"What just happened?" Jonah said, a trickle of wonder in his voice.

"I have no clue at all," Madison said, just as surprised as Jonah was.

Suddenly, Zoë pointed ahead of the group. "Well, the entrance is still here! Let's go!"

The group ran through the streets and over to what Zoë called "the entrance."

"Will this work without the Leaky Cauldron?" Beatrix asked. "Cause in the book there was the Leaky Cauldron."

"Well, if people can get in by just _walking around a wall_ in Universal, I'm sure this'll work," Jonah said.

"But she doesn't have the umbrella!" Madison said. "In the movie there was the umbrella."

"The book has the umbrella, too, Madison," said Ava. "We just have to try. Anyway, how could someone walk around a wall?"

"Okay, here goes," Zoë said. She carefully put her hand on the wall of a building. Slowly, it started to almost heat up underneath her hand. The ground shook again, and Molly closed her eyes to calm her raging mind and her raging stomach. When the shaking stopped and Molly opened her eyes, the world was the same as before - fog and British people included - except for the gaping hole in the side of the building, the edges of the hole red from Zoë's touch.

"Whoa," Molly said.

"Come on, you guys!" Zoë said, and the group followed her into the hole.

On the other side was something unlike anything Molly had ever seen before.

The hole led to an alleyway, cobblestone under the children's feet. Buildings advertising textbooks, robes, and magic wands adorned the sides of the street. A big marble building sat towards the end of the alley. The only building that was vacant was a building in the very front.

People snuck through the alley, trying to avoid the crowd of people lingering in the middle of the alley. Black robes walked around, pushing others out of the way. Teenagers flicked their wands at the storefronts, watching the results inside the windows. The only area that wasn't filled with people was a small area behind a giant as he and another child around Molly's age walked through the alley and into different buildings.

"Welcome," said Zoë, "to Diagon Alley."

"But wasn't there something there in the books?" Stella said, pointing to the empty storefront.

Molly fumbled around in her pocket, looking for her map. To her surprise, it was still there. She pulled it out and opened it up.

"I don't know what it is, but there _is_ supposed to be something there - something about _Wizard Wheezes_ or something...but I don't really know what that means," Molly said.

"Wait…" Beatrix said. "Is that the Weasley joke shop?"

Molly studied the map again. "It does have _Weasley_ in the title, and the description calls it some sort of trickster thing, but again, I don't really know what that means."

Beatrix gasped. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed.

"Wait, you _know_ what that means?" Molly asked.

Beatrix nodded. "How do you _not_ know what that means? Anyone who's read the books knows what that means!"

"Um…" Molly said. "I actually... _haven't_ read the books. Or seen the movies. Or anything."

"Wait, what?" Madison said. "You haven't seen the movies?"

"Or read the books?" Zoë said.

"Do you even know who Harry Potter is?" Stella said.

"Well…" She stole another glance at her letter. "Not much. I know he's a Hogwarts graduate, The Boy Who Lived, et cetera…" She sighed. "But that's it."

Ava bit her lip. "Well," she said, "that _could_ be a good thing! Especially since I think I know where we are."

"Where?" Molly asked.

Ava took a deep breath. "Molly, I don't think we're in Orlando anymore."

Molly couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I've figured that much out. But where are we?"

"Zoë said it before. Diagon Alley. But that isn't the point - the location is only half of the setting."

"Alright, then what's the other half?"

"Time."

Molly raised her eyebrows. "And what does that mean?"

"That rainstorm, back in Orlando, it didn't just bring us somewhere else - it brought us some _when_ else," Ava said, as if she was revealing some sort of crucial plot point in a story. Molly hated it when it was just said directly in the story - except when they made fun of it in _The Muppets._

"We aren't in 2014 anymore," Ava continued. "We're in 1991."

"Wait, what?" Molly said. Okay, maybe this was as good as _The Muppets_.

"I think she's right," Mackenzie said. "We're in London - in 1991. It makes perfect sense. The joke shop hadn't been built yet, and it would explain Hagrid being up there." She gestured to the giant, who was still leading the child into the different shops and parting the crowds in the alley.

"Is the kid named Hagrid?" Molly asked.

"Heavens, no," Beatrix said. "That's Harry."

"Harry…" Molly said. "Harry _Potter_? Didn't he send us the letters in the first place?"

"Yeah," Madison said. "I don't understand it either, but I do know one thing."

"What's that?" Molly asked, confused.

Zoë put her hands on Molly's shoulders.

"1991 - that's Harry's first year at Hogwarts," she said. "And we're here for it."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter! One of the things I love is getting a behind-the-scenes look at movies and books, so I thought it would be cool if I shared some interesting things about each chapter with you. Here's the behind-the-scenes tidbits about Chapter 1.**

 **1) When I wrote the original draft of this chapter, I had only read the (Philosopher's) Stone and about half of the Chamber of Secrets. The original draft included the Gringotts dragon breathing fire over the area, but after reading the Deathly Hallows, I omitted the dragon.**

 **2) The children going to Hogwarts are based on real friends of mine. Molly is based on me - and yes, I do enjoy playing the ukulele, reading _The Land of Stories_ , and going to Walt Disney World.**

 **3) Caitlyn is also based on a friend of mine that I used to go to school with. The argument at the beginning is based on a real conversation we had - and I think the line she was quoting was from the death of either Dobby or Fred.**

 **4) Just to clear things up: no, Mrs. Evans is not Lily.**

 **I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	2. Knuts and Sickles and Galleons

**Hi guys! I'm back with another chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2:**_

 _ **Knuts and Sickles and Galleons**_

 _"Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic."_

"Can we get our wands first? I really want to get a wand," Ava said.

"Hold your horses," Jonah said. "It's crowded here - we need to stay with each other if we're going to get anywhere. Plus we have to get money at Gringotts first."

Molly was still amazed at what bad luck she had. She had always dreamed of getting to meet the characters of a story with magic, like The Land of Stories or Magic Treehouse, and what story did she get stuck with? Harry Potter. The one fantasy book series she hadn't read - well, other than whatever that Percy Jackson thing was.

Slowly, the group moved forward in the alleyway, eventually arriving at the marble building Molly had seen earlier. Upon closer inspection, Molly could see a tiny little bellhop near the door - some sort of troll or goblin.

"What's this supposed to be, a bank?" Molly asked.

Zoë nodded. "It's a bank, alright - the most heavily guarded bank in the world. This is Gringotts."

"But what do we do now?" Mackenzie asked.

"We do what anyone in our place would do," Madison said. "We exchange our Muggle money for wizard money."

Molly raised her eyebrows, incredulous. "Okay," she said slowly.

The group saw another set of doors - and most of them just passed by as two more goblin creatures opened the doors for them. Only Molly stayed behind to read the engraving on the doors, which read:

 _Enter, stranger, but take heed_

 _Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

 _For those who take, but do not earn_

 _Must pay most dearly in their turn._

 _So if you seek beneath our floors_

 _A treasure that was never yours,_

 _Thief, you have been warned, beware_

 _Of finding more than treasure there._

"Hmm," Molly mused to herself. "You'd probably be mad to try and rob it."

She walked ahead to join the other kids in the bank. They had joined a line, and were actually nearing the front of it. Beatrix saw Molly looking at the group and motioned for her to come over, which Molly did instantaneously.

"Good morning, sir," Madison said to another goblin - by now Molly was sure that it was a goblin - at a counter at the front of the line. "We'd like to exchange our Muggle money for wizard money."

"What's a Muggle?" Molly whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Stella.

"A human," Stella whispered back, keeping her eyes on Madison.

The goblin nodded with a grunt. "Where is the money that your party would like to exchange?" he asked.

"We have it here somewhere," Madison said, and then turned to the rest of the group.

"Alright, I need some money," she said.

The children fiddled in their pockets for as much money as they could get. Molly felt like the odd child out - she didn't have any money to contribute.

"Alright, 100, 200, 300, 320, 330, 350, 360, 380, 400, 405, 406, 407, 407.25, 407.43, 407.93! Nice!" Madison said, counting up the money that the other children had given her. "Jonah, how did you get three hundred dollar bills?"

"Reasons," Jonah said, pulling out his Rubik's Cube and fiddling with it. Zoë giggled in understanding.

"Alright," Madison said, turning back to the goblin. "We have 407 American dollars and 93 American cents - can you help us exchange the money?"

The goblin nodded and took the money from Madison's hand. Carefully, he counted out the money and gave her a bunch of coins - gold, silver and bronze, although the gold and the bronze greatly outnumbered the silver.

"That's 50 Galleons, 3 Sickles, and 21 Knuts," the goblin said.

"Thank you," Madison said, pocketing the coins. The group began to walk out of the bank, the goblins watching them to make sure that they didn't try anything.

"So what were those coins that the goblin gave you?" she asked Madison as they walked out of Gringotts.

"Wizard money," Madison said. "The gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts."

"Okay, and how exactly do you spell all of those?" Molly said.

"I'll show you later," Mackenzie said. "Right now, we should probably get our wands."

The group shuffled through the crowd, arriving at a building about halfway through the alley. A sign hung down, with the word Ollivander's written on it in gold writing.

"Here we go," Beatrix said.

One by one, the children walked into the building. The ceilings were amazingly huge, with piles and piles of boxes lining shelves on the walls. The boxes almost looked like shoeboxes, though Molly knew that an ordinary shoebox would be completely out of place in a store like this.

The giant Hagrid and that little boy - could that really be Harry Potter? Molly pondered - were standing with another, older man, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons, talking about something.

"After all," the older man said, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great." Whatever the man meant, it caused the boy to shiver as he handed the man seven of those gold coins - Galleons, Molly remembered.

"Thank yeh," Hagrid said as the pair turned to walk out of the store. Molly froze as the boy passed by her - and nodded at her. Harry Potter, the Great and Powerful Wizard of Hogwarts (or something like that - again, Molly wasn't a Harry Potter scholar or anything), had just acknowledged her presence. The girl waved shyly.

The pair walked out of the shop, and the old man turned his attention to the group of children.

"Why, hello there!" he said, his voice laden with eccentricity. "Welcome to Ollivander's! It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Garrick Ollivander, and I welcome you to my shop and to the wizarding world. Are you ready to obtain your wand?"

"Ooh! Me first!" Beatrix said.

"Ah!" Mr. Ollivander said. "What's your name, little girl?"

"Beatrix," she said.

"Let's see about your wand, then," the man said. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Right," Beatrix answered.

"Hold out your arm," he said. "That's it."

Bit by bit, the man measured Beatrix's body - her arm, her head, her height, her everything. He began to talk to her. "Every Ollivander wand has a -"

Suddenly, Beatrix began to speak over Mr. Ollivander, saying, "-core of a powerful magical substance. You use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, and you won't get as good results with another wizard's wand as you will with your own."

Molly's mouth opened. How did she know all of that?

Mr. Ollivander had nothing but glee all over his face. "Well said, Beatrix. I couldn't have said it better myself. Now let's begin trying out some wands."

He pulled a box from the shelf near him and opened it up to reveal a very simple wand. "Let's try this one, Beatrix. Ten inches long - ebony, dragon's heartstrings, fairly flexible. Just give it a wave."

Beatrix waved the wand, but nothing happened. Mr. Ollivander took back the wand, giving her another wand.

"Maybe this one," he said. "Laurel wood, nine and a half inches, phoenix tail feather, very brittle."

She waved the new wand, but again, nothing happened, and the wand was taken back.

After a few more wands, Mr. Ollivander took out a wand made of elm wood - ten and three quarters inches long, quite bendy, and with the core of a phoenix tail feather. As soon as Beatrix took hold of it, a spark flew out from the tip of the wand. It burst into a magnificent firework over Mr. Ollivander's head.

The man started clapping. "Splendid, splendid! Your wand has found you!"

Beatrix beamed.

"Now, may I have the payment? You know my store pretty well - you probably know the payment as well," Mr. Ollivander said.

"Madison, can I have seven Galleons?" Beatrix asked. Madison fiddled in her pocket, finding the golden coins, and gave them to Beatrix.

"Here you are, Mr. Ollivander," Beatrix said.

"Thank you, my dear," Mr. Ollivander said. "Now who's next?"

Madison was next, and she was chosen by a wand that was fourteen inches long, was made of cypress wood, was quite flexible, and had a dragon heartstring core. Jonah ended up with an extremely brittle walnut wand that was twelve and a half inches long with a phoenix tail feather core. Mackenzie obtained an eleven and a half inch flexible wand with larch wood and a unicorn hair core, and Zoë was given a nine inch yew wand with a phoenix tail feather core that was very brittle. Ava was next, and she ended up with a ten and a half inch flexible wand made of ash wood and a unicorn hair core. After Ava, Stella stepped up, and she was given a ten and a quarter inch wand made of ebony wood that was extremely brittle and had a unicorn hair core.

Then it was Molly's turn.

"What is your name, little girl?" Mr. Ollivander said as Molly walked up to choose her wand.

"Molly," she said. "Molly Evans."

"Evans?" he asked. "As in Lily Evans?"

"Wait...who?" Molly asked in reply.

"Okay, then, never mind," Mr. Ollivander said. "Let's just find your wand and not distract ourselves with superfluous information."

Molly nodded, finally understanding and agreeing with some of the things that she was being told.

"Alright, let's try this one out. Maple, fairly flexible, fourteen and a half inches, with a dragon heartstring core."

She waved the wand, but Mr. Ollivander took it back.

"What about this one? Laurel wood, twelve inches long, extremely flexible, phoenix tail feather core."

As soon as she tried to wave, the wand was taken back.

"Alright, I think this one might work. Elm, moderately flexible, ten inches long with a unicorn hair core. Try it out for me."

As soon as Molly grasped the wand, she felt warmth coursing through her body. She raised the wand and flicked it down, and a trail of red sparks followed the wand's movement.

"Yes! Yes!" the old man cried out. "That's your wand!"

Molly couldn't help but smile as she watched the man's enthusiasm.

"The Galleons, please?" he asked.

Madison handed Molly seven Galleons, and she handed them to Mr. Ollivander. The seen children squeezed through the door of the wand shop and back into Diagon Alley.

"Alright, now what do we do?" Molly asked.

"How about we get our uniforms?" Mackenzie said.

"Sure," Jonah said, "as long as I'm in a separate room from the…" He pointed his finger at the kids, one after the other. "...seven of you."

"That sounds like a good idea," Zoë giggled.

"What kind of uniforms do we need?" Molly asked.

Beatrix straightened her back, as if she was preparing to make a grand speech. "Three sets of plain work robes - black - a plain pointed hat for day wear - black - a pair of protective gloves - dragon hide or similar - and a winter coat - black with silver fastenings - all with our name tags in them."

Molly's eyes widened. "Okay," she said slowly.

The group walked over to a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and walked in. A short, stout woman with purple robes stood at the front of the store.

"Hello!" the woman said. "Welcome to my shop! I'm Madam Malkin, as you might have correctly guessed, and I take it you eight will need some robes! Hogwarts, I presume?"

The children nodded simultaneously.

"Wonderful! I've been fitting people for Hogwarts outfits all day! Just had a boy in here, with black hair, and something on his face - I didn't see him long enough to figure it out -"

"Harry?" Molly asked curiously. "Was it Harry Potter?"

"Harry Potter! Why, that'd be a miracle if Harry Potter was in my shop! But miracles can happen," Madam Malkin said mysteriously. "It could've been Harry. He was talking up a storm with a blond boy in the back - pale, slightly pointed face, you know the type."

"It was Harry, alright," Zoë whispered to Molly. "He was talking to Draco in the back."

"Who's Draco?" Molly whispered back, but her question fell on deaf ears. Zoë had moved her attention to something else.

"Zoë, who's Draco?" Molly asked again, a bit louder.

"Probably my future Housemate," she said.

"Alright, can you explain the Houses to me?" Molly said. "Because you mentioned something about those earlier."

"I'll explain when we're getting fitted," Zoë said.

The children walked into a room in the back - Jonah being put in a room separate from the girls. The seven girls put on white undergarments so as not to look inappropriate, and women began to measure them for the perfect robes.

Zoë started to talk to Molly.

"Alright, there are four Houses," she said. "There's Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Gryffindor is the 'bravery' House - that's where Harry is. Slytherin is the 'trickery' House, and that's where Draco is. You'll meet him when we get to Hogwarts."

"Okay," Molly said.

"Hufflepuff is the 'kindness' House, and there really isn't anyone that notable in it - well, except for Cedric Diggory, but he's older. And Ravenclaw is for the smart people - Luna Lovegood's in that House. She's really cool - you're going to love her."

Molly nodded, trying to pay attention.

"Which one do you think I'll be in?" Molly said.

"I don't know, but for your sake, I hope you're not in Slytherin," Zoë said. "Draco, the kid that I was telling you about? He is totally anti-Muggleborn."

"Muggleborn?" Molly asked.

"Wizards or witches with completely human parents - no direct wizard blood," Zoë explained. "He hates them - he even calls them Mudbloods. I think we're all Muggleborn - emphasis on think - but I know I could take him down. You don't know any of his weaknesses, having never read the book."

"Oh, joy," Molly said.

"You could be in Hufflepuff - you're really nice," Zoë said. "And Ravenclaw - you're pretty smart, so they might take you. Gryffindor might be a good spot for you, too - just definitely not Slytherin."

"Got it," Molly said.

The girls (and boy, with Jonah in the next room over) bought their robes and walked out of the shop, heading over to another shop nearby called the Eeylops Owl Emporium.

"What's this?" Molly asked.

"This is where we're getting our pets," Beatrix said. "You can either get an owl, a toad, or a cat, but toads are all icky and everyone already has a cat."

"Excuse me!" Stella said in mock offense. "I want a cat more than I want an owl!"

Molly giggled. Although she didn't have a pet, she had always reasoned that if she did, she wouldn't go for something usual like a dog or a cat.

The children (minus Stella - she went down the street to buy a cat of her own) walked into the shop. When they walked out, they all had owls of their own. Madison's owl was named Opa after she had bumped into the side of her cage and made a sound, almost as if she was saying "Oops." Molly pointed out that opa was German for grandfather and started with a long "o," but Madison told her that it was also a Greek expression used when something was broken. Nevertheless, Opa seemed to like the name. The others hadn't come up with suitable names, so they decided to name their owls later.

The next shop was called Flourish and Blotts, which was covered in shelves of large textbooks. "Oh, this shop looks cool!" Molly said as the children walked inside.

"Yep," Jonah said. "This is the one I was looking forward to."

"Of course you'd look forward to this one, Jonah," Ava said, jabbing Jonah with her elbow. "You're the biggest bookworm this side of the Mississippi."

"I read the first Land of Stories book in a day," Molly said weakly, but the group had moved their attention to the books.

"Aren't they making a movie about this one?" Mackenzie said, gesturing to a book labeled _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by a man named Newt Scamander.

"Yeah, I heard about that one," Zoë said. "It doesn't come out for another two years, though."

"You mean…" Molly tried to figure out the math in her head. "It comes out in twenty-five years."

Zoë shrugged. "Fair enough," she said.

Quickly, the children picked up the books they needed, Zoë helping Molly figure out the books she needed, just like she had promised. They dashed through the other shops, grabbing cauldrons, Potions materials (Jonah and Ava talking up a storm about how amazing the Potions teacher was), and telescopes.

Once Zoë had confirmed that the group had gotten everything they needed (and some more - Beatrix insisted on picking up a large, ornate book labeled Hogwarts: A History), the group walked into a building labeled The Leaky Cauldron.

"Now that's more like it," Mackenzie said as they walked into the building, which looked like some sort of pub.

"What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"Usually, there's a courtyard in the back of this place that acts as the entrance to Diagon Alley - and that's in the books and the movies," Mackenzie explained. "This place must be a conglomeration of the books, the movies, and the theme park." She sighed. "I wonder who's getting detention."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Molly asked, but Mackenzie had moved on to talk with the others.

"What do we do now?" she asked. "The term doesn't start until September 1st."

"We wait here," Madison said. "This place is awesome."

"Gosh, you're such a Hufflepuff," Ava said jokingly. "Anybody wanna do some magic?"

"No!" Beatrix said. "No magic outside of Hogwarts!"

Molly couldn't help but giggle at their antics, even though she still didn't understand everything. Suddenly, she got an idea.

"Guys?" she asked. "What if we went to one of the stores and bought the books? That way I'd be able to learn everything!"

Madison sighed. "We can't, Molly," she said. "The first book didn't come out until 1998 - that's seven years from now."

Mackenzie sighed wistfully. "I open at the close," she said. Jonah snickered.

Molly raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it."

"You'll see," Beatrix said. "In seven years."

Molly smiled. "Okay."

"Why don't we stay here until the term starts?" Ava suggested.

Everyone acknowledged it as a good idea, so they made their way to the man behind the bar. His back was hunched, and his right eye wandered in a different direction than his left.

"Alright," Stella said to herself. "It's not Moody."

Molly didn't know exactly what she meant, but she pushed Madison forward as the emissary of the group.

"Excuse me, are there any rooms available from now until the first?" Madison looked a little wary of the man, but Molly had seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame enough to know not to judge him.

"Why, yes!" he croaked. "Follow me."

The party followed the crooked man up a dark, narrow staircase. At the very top was a rusty metal door.

"Come on in!" the man said, opening the door. Watching her step, Molly walked into the room.

The room was covered in peeling black paint, and eight spring beds lined the wall facing the children. In the corner, a curtain decorated with four different animals - the same animals Molly had seen on the wax seal back at Disney World - covered what looked like a shower and closet all in one. When Molly pulled back the curtain, a wave of dust hit her, and she started coughing. Inside, she could barely see the showerhead, as well as a toilet, a sink, and a cabinet for clothes. The only sources of light were a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and a small, circular window.

"Welcome to your room!" the hunchbacked man said. "If you need me for anything, my name's Tom. Have a great stay here at the Leaky Cauldron!"

He shut the rusty door, shaking the room.

"Okay," Molly said. "So we're here until we find a way back to 2014."

"No," Stella said. "We go to Hogwarts in a few days. That's what the letter was for."

Molly raised her eyebrows. "Okay, someone has to explain to me: What's Hogwarts?"

"Hogwarts is a wizarding school," Beatrix said. "The most famous in the world - well, at least after the books came out. Harry goes there."

"Is it fun?" Molly asked, feeling extremely dumb.

"Yeah!" Stella said. "Hogwarts is the -"

Before Stella could say anything naughty, Jonah told her to stop by using some foul language of his own. Molly tried to ignore them.

"I think I get it," she said. "What time is it?"

"I'll check," Mackenzie said. "I have my phone."

She opened up her phone and then forcefully stuffed it back into her pocket.

"It says it's 13:13," she said. "It doesn't work."

"Stuff like that doesn't work in magical places - it mingles too much," Beatrix said properly, looking up from the ornate book she had bought at Flourish and Blotts. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

Jonah rolled his eyes. "Of course you did."

"Well, let's get to bed," Madison said. "We have some big days ahead of us."

"Yay," Molly said unenthusiastically, still wishing she had ended up in The Land of Stories.

She tried to make herself comfortable on the springy-yet-somehow-still-rigid bed, with Mackenzie pulling the covers over her. Wondering how the next year was going to work, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter! Here's the fun facts about this week's chapter.**

 **1) This chapter establishes some of the character traits of the original characters - and they're all based on real life! Beatrix and Jonah are really smart, Stella curses a lot (and, dealing with the previous chapter, she _adores_ Lin-Manuel Miranda!) and Madison would _totally_ fangirl if she ended up in Diagon Alley.**

 **2) The wand woods for each character were chosen based on the _Wand Woods_ article on Pottermore. They show a bit more insight into the characters and their future in the story. (There's also something really special about Madison's wand that I'll tell you about in a chapter to come.)**

 **3) I am a _humongous_ fan of the Magic Treehouse books, as well as The Land of Stories. I actually got to meet Mary Pope Osborne at her house in Connecticut, and she was really nice. (And I really like Percy Jackson now - I just hadn't read it before the end of 6th grade, and the timing of pop culture's effects on my life is as close as I can make it to real life.)**

 **4) I wrote this chapter before watching A Very Potter Musical (which I saw during the process of writing Chapter 3). After watching it and discovering that Darren Criss played the boyfriend of the character of _the author of The Land of Stories_ _books_ , I couldn't help but laugh at the coincidence. AVPM references are coming up very shortly in the story, so stay tuned!**

 **5) In the first draft of this chapter, Stella wasn't even a part of the story yet (and when she finally became a part of it, her original name was Maeve), Beatrix was named Cassandra, and Jonah was named Jonas.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	3. Red Hair, Hand-Me-Down Robes

**Hi! This chapter is a lot shorter than the last one, but it's what I think works well with this chapter. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 3:_**

 ** _Red Hair, Hand-Me-Down Robes_**

"' _First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too.'  
_ _She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose."_

To Molly's surprise and slight delight, the next few days were nothing but pleasure.

Every day, Beatrix went down to the Leaky Cauldron's dining area and ordered breakfast for the eight kids. Every day, Opa would fly out the window and come back to let the children know what the weather was like. Every day, Zoë would go outside and grab a copy of the Daily Prophet, the newspaper of Diagon Alley. Every day, the children would go outside and look for either a family of red-haired kids, a girl with bushy brown hair and the same ornate book that Beatrix had bought, or a pudgy little boy with a toad and his grandmother. They didn't dare spoil Molly with the identities of the children, because, as they knew very well, Molly hadn't read the books or seen the movies.

It was one day in mid-August (somehow, the time traveling had brought the children back to July 31st instead of August 18th - the day it had been in their world) that the children finally spotted one of the groups they had been looking for for ages.

At the beginning, it seemed like any other day, if you count sitting around in a wizard pub watching for future celebrities _any other day._ Beatrix had come up with a name for her black-banded owl - _Eclipse_ , she had decided. Stella had decided to name her black cat _Usnavi_ , although the other children had no idea what that meant. Not that they could talk - they still hadn't come up with names for their owls, which they kept in cages in the corner of the room.

Molly took as quick of a shower as she could - the hot water ran out extremely quickly - and dressed herself in the same outfit she had been wearing since the first day (there really weren't many clothing stores in the area, other than Madam Malkin's). As each person got showered and dressed, Molly couldn't help but wonder how much more of this she could take. She knew the term started in a few days, but a few days seemed like forever when she was doing the same thing, over and over and over again.

"Opa!" Madison called, jerking Molly out of her thoughts. "Fly, my pretty! Fly!"

She opened the window, and the brown-feathered, amber-eyed owl flew outside. A few minutes later, she returned, her feathers disheveled from the wind.

"It's windy today, guys," Madison said. "Doesn't look like she's wet, though."

"Phew," Zoë said. "I don't want to get my clothes wet again."

"Oh my God, that rainstorm was horrible!" Stella said. "I wish we'd known we would end up in London - I would've brought my raincoat."

"It isn't actually that rainy in London," Molly said weakly, but nobody was listening to her, just like they hadn't been at Flourish and Blotts. It was a little weirder for them to not hear her this time - the room, as Molly had noticed before, was extremely small, especially compared to the textbook store.

Once everyone had gotten dressed, the children walked out of their room (Usnavi perched on Stella's shoulder) and down the crooked wooden stairs. Beatrix had brought down a few of the textbooks that they would need, and Molly sat down at a table and began to look at one of them, a rusty-colored book full of magical spells.

"Mackenzie," she called. "Can you help me with something?"

Mackenzie obliged, jogging over to the table as the rest of the group picked up the breakfast that Beatrix had ordered that morning.

"Alright," she said. "What is it?"

"You've seen the movies," Molly said. "How do people move their wands for spells and stuff like that?"

"Oh, that's easy," Mackenzie said. "Just swish and flick."

She grabbed Molly's hand and moved it in a U-shape before jerking it down.

"It's as simple as that?" Molly said. "I want to try for real!"

"Not yet," Mackenzie said firmly. "We're underage - technically."

"Oh." Molly didn't know what counted as _underage_ here, but she understood. "Okay."

Mackenzie walked away, leaving Molly to her own devices. As she joined the other students, she heard a faint murmuring from behind her.

When she turned around, she saw Molly waving her hand as if it held a wand, her head buried in the rusty-colored textbook, whispering "Lumos" in a British accent over and over.

Mackenzie smiled and walked back to Molly.

"Are you using a British accent on purpose?" she asked playfully.

Molly nodded without shame.

"What would you rather hear?" she asked Mackenzie. "Would you rather someone say…" She turned to a random page in the book and took on a dull tone. "...Wingardium Leviosa, or hear them say…" Her voice brightened as she stood up and said, in a British accent, " _Wingardium Leviosa?_ "

She almost seemed to shrink as she sat back down.

"You know what I mean?" she said meekly.

Mackenzie smirked. "It almost sounds more magical that way - I agree. Although," she continued, leaning down and whispering, "I wouldn't do it in front of Beatrix and Stella - I don't know them that well, and...well…"

"I understand," Molly said.

"Hey, are you going to pick up your breakfast?" Mackenzie asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll be right there."

"Okay," Mackenzie said as she walked to the counter to grab her meal. When she looked back, Molly was still reading the spells from the book, presently saying "Alohomora" many times before moving on to another spell.

Mackenzie smiled, grabbing her breakfast and walking back over to sit with Molly.

* * *

Later that day, Molly had finished browsing the textbook and was reading the day's issue of the Daily Prophet.

"They're still talking about that stupid thief on the 31st," she said. "Isn't there anything else they could write about?"

Jonah, who happened to be sitting next to her, looked over at the Prophet.

"Wow, cool picture of the goblins," he said.

Molly rolled her eyes. "But that's all they're talking about! They haven't even found out anything new!"

"I know," Zoë said from across the table. "But it's fun to look at the pictures."

"Well, that _is_ true," Molly said, still the slightest bit annoyed. She went back to reading, but was interrupted by a bell in the front ringing.

"Oh, I wonder who's here!" Madison whispered as the door opened.

Molly looked around Jonah to see a tall boy with neat red hair and a bulky maroon sweater on. Behind him were four other boys - and two girls - all with red hair and their own defining features. The only ones who looked exactly the same were two boys just behind the one in the front - the only way Molly could tell them apart was their sweaters.

Molly's eyes widened. While she didn't know who the family was, she did know that they were one of the groups of people that the others had been looking for. She looked over at Stella, who was covering her smile with her hands.

"Whoa," the boy in the front said with a heavy British accent. Suddenly, he noticed the eight children sitting in front of him and staring at him.

"Uh, Mum, why are these people looking at me funny?" he called back to one of the women, who seemed to be older than the others.

"Do you think I know, Ron?" she asked in reply. "Hold on."

She pushed past the other red-haired children and walked up to the kids sitting at the tables.

"I don't know what kind of a prank you're pulling," she said, "but I get enough of it from my sons - I don't need it from anybody else, so...could you please, uh, stop teasing my son?"

The children were silent. Eventually, Beatrix tapped Madison, looking at her expectantly.

Madison sighed. "We're not pulling a prank, Miss," she said. "We've heard about your son - he's...well, he's a pretty cool guy."

The woman shook her head, as if trying to convince herself that something wasn't happening.

"How do you know about my son?" she said, wary.

 _Oh, great,_ Molly thought. _They can't tell her about the books._

"Umm...it's a long story," Madison said. "But we seriously don't mean any harm."

The woman looked back at her son, then back at the children. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Oh, alright."

A few of the kids gasped softly. Why would she suddenly decide to believe them?

Madison smiled amiably. "Thank you," she said. "My name's Madison."

"It's nice to meet you," the woman said. "I'm Mrs. Weasley, and this is Ron."

 _Weasley_ , Molly thought. _Wasn't that the name of the joke shop that was supposed to be in that empty storefront?_

Madison nodded, shaking Mrs. Weasley's hand, and then Ron's.

"Uh, who are the others?" Molly asked.

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry," Mrs. Weasley said. "The twins are Fred and George."

The two boys who had been behind Ron waved. "Nice to meet you," one said.

Molly smiled and waved meekly as Mrs. Weasley continued introducing the children.

"The boy in the back is Percy - he's a _prefect_ for Gryffindor this year, you know, very big honor - and the little girl is Ginny - she's young, she'll be joining you next year - and the man in the back is my husband, Mr. Weasley," Mrs. Weasley said. "Now what are your names?"

"Well, I'm Molly," said Molly. "And this is -"

"Wait," Mrs. Weasley said. "Your name's Molly?"

Molly nodded, unsure what Mrs. Weasley was getting at.

"So is mine!" she said with her face lifted in surprise.

Molly gasped. "Really?" she said. She hadn't realized that there was someone in the Harry Potter world who had the same name as her! In a weird way, it changed something for her.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "You can just call me Mrs. Weasley, though - to avoid confusion."

"Okay," Molly said, grinning ear to ear.

One by one, she introduced the other kids at the table, starting with Stella and ending with Ava. Almost instantaneously, the group of Weasleys began to split up and strike up conversations with the children.

Jonah struck up a conversation with Fred and George talking about the pranks they'd played on their siblings, and Madison joined in, finding the topic quite interesting. Beatrix and Ginny began to talk about Harry himself, Ginny being very interested in the story of his defeating a dark wizard (Molly only caught bits of the conversation that she heard as she was talking). Ava was talking with Percy about some of the expectations of Hogwarts. Stella, Mackenzie, and Zoë were telling Ron and his father about Muggle things, Stella rapping the praises of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Molly and Mrs. Weasley started talking to each other.

"So how many children do you have?" Molly asked. She didn't know how Mrs. Weasley would take to the question, but she hoped she took it well.

"Seven," Mrs. Weasley replied. "There's Bill and Charlie - they're away, Bill's working in Africa for Gringotts and Charlie's studying wild dragons in Romania - then Percy, the twins, Ron, and Ginny."

"Wow," Molly said. "And only one girl?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded.

"Same here," Molly said. "Well - not in my generation, I'm an only child, but in my mom's. She was the only girl in a family of six - not as big as yours, but still pretty big."

Mrs. Weasley chuckled. "It can get pretty crazy," she admitted. "But once you've raised the twins, you could raise anything."

Molly giggled. "What are they like?" she asked.

"Pranksters all the way," Mrs. Weasley said. "Once, they turned poor Ron's teddy bear into a humongous spider! Poor thing - never liked spiders since."

"Has he read _Charlotte's Web_?" Molly asked. She had read that book a few years ago, and it had always given her a love for arachnids.

"No," Mrs. Weasley said. "The kids don't usually read Muggle books. Arthur does, though."

"Your husband?" Molly guessed.

"Precisely," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling. "He works for the Ministry of Magic - loves anything to do with Muggles. I've caught him reading _To Kill A Mockingbird_ more times than one."

Molly giggled. She really liked Mrs. Weasley. But there was one thing she wasn't sure about.

"Wait," she said. "What's the Ministry of Magic?"

Mrs. Weasley held in a gasp. "You don't know about the Ministry?"

Molly shook her head.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, "the Ministry of Magic is kind of like our wizard government. They hunt down people who cause mayhem in our world, and they make sure that Muggles don't see anything magical."

"Why not?" Molly asked. "Plenty of my friends at home would love to see magic."

Mrs. Weasley looked shocked. "My dear, our entire existence has been a closely guarded secret from the beginning! If Muggles knew about magic, they'd try to be a part of it, and only certain people - like us, and like you - can create magic."

Molly realized she was getting into a hotly debated subject - even the wizarding world had politics to deal with - so she stopped talking about the Ministry and asked about something else she had been confused about.

"What did you say earlier about not reading Muggle books?" she asked. "Are there other wizard stories?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "There are tons! Beedle the Bard - he wrote them all. There's 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune,' 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,' 'The Tale of the Three Brothers,' you know the rest."

"Um…" Molly said. She had only just remembered that she hadn't told Mrs. Weasley that she was Muggleborn.

"What is it, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"I'm not...um, like your family," she said. "My mom and dad aren't magic, like you and Mr. Weasley - I'm Muggleborn."

Mrs. Weasley laughed, and Molly's heart sank.

"What is it?" she said nervously.

"None of that matters to us!" she said. "The only ones who don't like Muggleborns are the servants of You-Know-Who."

"You-Know-Who?" Molly said.

"The worst Dark Wizard since Grindelwald - about 50 years ago," she said, shivering.

"And you call him You-Know-Who?" Molly asked skeptically.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, "his name isn't _You-Know-Who_ \- we just call him that, and we don't like to say his real name."

"Well," Molly said, "I'm sure you can make an exception."

She took a deep breath. "Fine then, you'll find out eventually anyway," she said. "His name's _Voldemort_."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "Wait...that means _flight from death_ in French. How is that a villain name?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed, more troubled than anything. "You'll see."

"Oh," Molly said. "Okay."

* * *

"Well, it was great to meet you guys," Madison said as she shook Mrs. Weasley's hand. The others were saying their goodbyes to the other Weasleys.

"Pleasure to meet you, too," Mrs. Weasley said. "Maybe we'll see each other at the train station in a few days!"

"That sounds like a great idea," Stella said.

After each of the Weasleys had said goodbye to each of the children, they walked toward the door and waved as they walked out, with plenty of calls of "Have a good day" and "See you soon." The door closed, and the Weasleys had left as quickly as they had come, leaving an almost eerie silence in the pub.

"Well, that was crazy," Zoë said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Molly nodded, a wave of exhaustion rushing over her. "What time is it?"

"You have to stop asking that," Beatrix said as she looked at a large clock hanging from the wall of the Leaky Cauldron. "I think it's about 5...uh, 15."

"Alright," Molly said. "Let's get dinner and then head upstairs."

"That sounds like a plan!" Jonah said overenthusiastically.

And together, the kids ordered dinner and ate. After dinner, Molly was the first to head up to the children's room. Lying in her bed, she tried to imagine what kind of meaning the red-haired family had to Harry's story. Contemplating this, she slowly fell asleep, her mind oblivious to the other children walking in.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter! Here are this week's fun facts:**

 **1) The inspiration for Stella suggested the name for her cat. When I wrote this chapter, I (like my character) had no idea what the name meant, but after a quick Google search and a listen to a certain soundtrack on Spotify, I completely understood.**

 **2) This was the chapter that I watched AVPM and the sequels during the writing of. It took all of my strength to _not_ set up a situation in which Ron entered to his name, like in the play. **

**3) During the conception of this chapter, I _finally_ finished reading the books. I had written Molly's conversation with Mrs. Weasley right after reading the end of Chapter 31 of the Deathly Hallows (which I had spoiled myself about), and I used the writing as a bit of an escape, only picking up the book again to figure out the titles of the stories in _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_. (In other words, I wrote my way out. Yes, I just did that.)**

 **4) I was debating including this chapter in the story, but then I decided that it served the story well, and it introduced Molly to some of the "rules" of the wizarding world. Don't worry - Hogwarts is coming up in the next chapter!**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	4. All Aboard the Hogwarts Express

**Hi! This chapter is really long, but it's a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4:**_

 _ **All Aboard the Hogwarts Express**_

" _Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the cart was out of control - he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash -  
_ _It didn't come...he kept on running...he opened his eyes."_

"Molly?"

A pinpoint of light pierced the darkness. Molly felt like weights had been put on her eyes, forcing them to stay closed.

"Molly, you need to get up!"

She tried to open them more, and through the thin crack between blackness and blackness, she could see short pink hair leaning over her. _Mackenzie_ , she thought.

Mackenzie sighed. "Molly, it's time for rope drop at the Magic Kingdom!"

Molly jumped out of her bed. "What? What time is it?"

Suddenly, her eyes adjusted to the sudden burst of light, and the first thing she saw clearly was the shower curtain, depicting what Ava had explained was the Hogwarts logo.

Molly slumped, the teeniest bit disappointed. She looked over at Mackenzie, who had a smug smile on her face.

"You know, you really need to stop asking what time it is," she said. "And by the way, I checked downstairs. It's 7:30."

Molly bit back a laugh. "You tricked me," she said. "You made me think we were at Disney World!"

Mackenzie nodded slyly.

Molly let the laugh out. "You're not too bad," she said.

"Thanks," Mackenzie said.

"So why am I up so early? We usually don't end up getting up until, like, 10:00 in the morning."

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "It's the big day! September 1st!"

"What's September 1st?" Molly asked, confused.

"We gotta get ourselves to Hogwarts!" Mackenzie said, nearly bursting.

Molly gasped. "Really?" she said.

Mackenzie nodded.

"It's Hogwarts day! It's Hogwarts day!" Molly said, jumping out of bed, patting down her hair, and swinging Ava, who was standing nearby, around.

Madison opened up the window to let Opa out for the last weather check of their stay at the Leaky Cauldron.

"No, no, no!" Jonah yelled from the other end of the room. "Not today!"

"Why not?" Madison said. Before Jonah could explain, Molly had taken a deep breath and started singing.

"The window is open, so's that door! I didn't know they did that anymore. Who knew we owned 8,000 salad plates?" she sang, waking the rest of the children up.

"That's why," Jonah said.

Pretty soon, the entire group of kids had gotten showered and dressed in their Muggle clothes from the day they had gotten to Diagon Alley. Beatrix went downstairs and let Tom know that they were checking out, and he wished them well with their first year at Hogwarts.

Once they had left Diagon Alley with their owls and Stella's cat, Molly couldn't help but feel like she had left something amazing behind. She reminded herself that she was about to go to a school made just for witches and wizards, but she still felt like something magical had just been undone. What didn't help was that the world had completely changed. Instead of being the Universal Studios replica that it had been the first day the children had arrived, it was actually London, towering buildings, casinos, and all.

Mackenzie, unlike Molly, was delighted that they were out of Diagon Alley - the sole reason being that for the next few minutes, she could use her phone without a difficulty in the world. She wasted absolutely no time pulling up her Maps application and plugging in the directions to King's Cross.

"Alright, so we're going to walk for a while until we get to a place called Tottenham Court Road," she said to the group of kids.

Bit by bit, they started walking, Zoë pointing out a theater called the Palace Theater that was going to play host to a Harry Potter play. Molly couldn't help but find it funny that the play was on the same street as Diagon Alley itself.

To the children's surprise, there weren't many wrong turns they ended up making. Molly was glad it was going so quickly, although she still wished she had put on her ordinary sneakers (which she had packed in her suitcase) instead of her tough, leather Hogwarts shoes.

They turned onto Euston Road and walked a little longer, Stella having to make sure that Jonah didn't walk into the street as he was playing with his Rubik's Cube. They turned again onto Pancras Road, and Molly was starting to recognize landmarks from Universal. A few more steps, and they were standing in front of the entrance to King's Cross.

Stella opened the door for the rest of the group, and they walked in. "Wow," Molly said.

The doors had opened to a brick concourse, with ticket stands scattered around. Blue signs that reminded Molly of an airport pointed to platform after platform.

"Which platform are we supposed to be going to?" Molly asked.

"Platform 9 and ¾," Ava responded without hesitation.

"Wait, what?" Molly asked. "How can there be ¾ of a platform?"

"You'll see," Ava said, smirking.

They walked through the station until they heard a deep, nasty voice. "Well, there you are, boy," it said.

Zoë stopped dead in her tracks.

"Platform nine - platform ten," the voice, most likely a man, continued. "Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they? Have a good term."

And just around the corner, a man with virtually no neck came around the corner to meet a thin woman with twice as much neck and a boy who appeared to be around Molly's age. They started laughing and walking off.

"That's Harry's Uncle Vernon!" Stella said. "Harry's just around the corner - and the Weasleys should be nearby, too!"

As if on cue, Molly heard Mrs. Weasley shout from somewhere within the huge crowd of people.

"Where's Ron?" she called, and Molly could barely see her curls from within the crowd.

"Did somebody say Ron?" Ron called in reply.

"There you are, Ronniekins!" Mrs. Weasley cried, and the crowds shifted as she and her son reunited.

"Mrs. Weasley!" Mackenzie called out.

Finally, the crowd parted, and the Weasley family appeared, pushing trunks and owls with them.

"Good day, everyone!" Mrs. Weasley said when she saw the kids, and went through their group, hugging each of them on her way. "How are you kids?"

"We're good, Mrs. Weasley," Molly said. "Anything new with your family?"

"Oh, not much," Mrs. Weasley admitted. "Just getting the kids ready for Hogwarts."

The Weasleys and the other children started walking around the corner towards the platform.

"And you lost Ron for a second," Ava said.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "It's hard in a place like this - it's packed with Muggles, of course, so it's hard to get around."

In the distance, Molly could see a dark-haired kid - the same one she had seen in Diagon Alley and at Ollivander's - perking up and pushing his own cart towards the family.

She leaned over to Stella and whispered, "It's Harry. It has to be." Sure enough, Stella nodded, and Molly's heart soared. She was standing just a few feet from _the_ Harry Potter!

Mrs. Weasley bent down and addressed Ginny. "Now," she said, as if trying to get an answer, "what's the platform's name?"

"Nine and three-quarters!" Ginny said excitedly, but with a pleading look in her eyes. "Mum, can't I go…"

"You're not old enough yet, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said gently. "Alright, Percy, you go first."

Percy straightened his posture and began to almost march towards the wall between platforms 9 and 10. In front of her, Molly could see the dark-haired kid turn towards Percy and squint to see what was going to happen.

Suddenly, a group of tourists moved in front of Percy, and it was almost impossible to see what was going on. Molly raised her heels and stood on the balls of her feet, and she could just see Percy's head fade into the wall and disappear. Her eyes widened.

"Fred, you next," Mrs. Weasley said, gesturing to one of the twins.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," the boy said, and even though she hadn't been able to differentiate between the twins yet, Molly could tell from the mischievous edge in the boy's voice that he was actually Fred. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?"

"Sorry, George, dear," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Only joking," he said. "I am Fred."

He started pushing his cart towards the wall. "Hurry up!" George called from behind Molly.

"You too, George," Jonah said jokingly, pushing George forward. The red-haired twin laughed and began to run towards the wall. Soon, Fred had disappeared into the wall, and George just after him.

Harry, just a few feet from Molly, turned towards Mrs. Weasley and ran forward.

"Excuse me," he said properly.

"Oh, hello, dear," Mrs. Weasley said kindly. "First time at Hogwarts?"

Harry nodded.

"Ron's new, too," she said, gesturing to Ron. He held out his hand, and Harry shook it warily, reminding Molly of when she had met the other kids back in Florida.

"Don't forget us!" Zoë called, and the whole group laughed.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "They're going to Hogwarts, too - more first years," she said.

"What are their names?" he asked.

"Well, I'm Molly," Molly said. "And these are Ava, Stella, Zoë, Jonah, Mackenzie, Beatrix, and Madison."

Each person nodded as Molly said their name.

"Well, it's nice to meet you...uh, eight," Harry said. "But the thing is...well, I don't know how to...uh…"

"Get onto the platform?" Mrs. Weasley said.

Harry nodded.

"Not to worry," Mrs. Weasley assured him. "Just walk right there…" She pointed at the wall that the other kids had walked into… "between platforms 9 and 10. Don't stop and don't be scared, that's really important."

The expression on Harry's face had gone from _mildly nervous_ to _extremely terrified_ , and Molly couldn't help but empathize. How could someone just walk into a wall (and not around it, like at Universal)?

"Go on, go on before Ron and the others," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Er - okay," Harry said, his voice quavering. He shuffled towards the wall, then got a little faster, then a lot faster, then finally to the point where he was running face first towards the wall. His face scrunched up just before he disappeared.

"Whoa," Molly said.

"How about you go next, dear?" Mrs. Weasley said to Molly.

"Really?" Molly said, nervous and excited at the same time.

Mrs. Weasley nodded, and Molly gripped her suitcase even tighter than she had before.

"On your mark!" Jonah called.

Molly glared at him, and he shuffled behind Madison and Zoë, the tallest members of the group.

She moved her legs into a good position to start running at the wall.

"Get set!" Jonah called.

"Jonah!" Molly called back.

She didn't hear a reply, so she took that to mean that he wouldn't call anything out anymore. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on running through the wall.

"Go!" Jonah called, and her legs seemed to move subconsciously.

"Jonah!" she called one more time, trying to keep her voice from shaking. People jumped to stay out of Molly's way as she ran towards the wall. She closed her eyes to keep her from seeing the crash, trying not to be scared.

It would come any second now - any second now - any second now - _it should've come by now,_ Molly thought - any second now -

"Molly!" Harry cried.

She opened her eyes and realized she was about two seconds from knocking into Harry. Quickly, she pulled herself back, and she was somehow able to stay upright.

Sighing with relief, she looked behind her - and instead of seeing Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and the other kids, she saw a solid brick wall that could've been the other side of the wall she'd seen earlier. The only difference was that this side had an iron archway, with a large sign reading _Platform 9 ¾._

"Whoa," she said. She had done it.

Suddenly, the wall seemed to ripple, and Madison ran through it. One by one, each kid appeared on Molly's side of the wall, and each one marveled at the platform.

"Look at the train!" Zoë said, pointing behind Molly. When she turned around, Molly saw a huge, scarlet steam train looming over her.

"Come on!" Madison said, and the kids ran towards the train.

Most of the compartments in the front of the train were full, with kids leaning out the window to wish their parents goodbye. A blonde, round-faced boy was complaining - something about losing a toad? Molly couldn't help but feel a little confused as she passed by.

At the very end of the train, a few compartments had room for the children. Harry walked in first, putting a snow-white owl inside before attempting to drag his trunk in. At one point, it fell on his foot, and Molly tried to run up and help him, but Beatrix held her arm up to prevent her from helping. "It would change everything," she said, although Molly didn't see why.

Suddenly, one of the Weasley twins came over and helped him out, and Molly felt a little better. As much as she had wanted to help Harry, she didn't want to stand in the way of friendship. Plus - and she hated to admit it - she probably wouldn't be able to pick up the trunk any more than Harry could, and she didn't want to embarrass herself.

"Fred!" the twin called. "Come here and help!"

"So that one's George," Molly whispered to Beatrix out of the side of her mouth, and Beatrix nodded as the other twin - Fred - ran over to help Harry.

It only took about half a minute for Harry and the twins to push the trunk into the compartment, and then it took another half a minute for the twins to let out a cry when they realized that the boy standing with them was, indeed, Harry Potter. Molly couldn't help but wonder if he was famous in the wizarding world, too, and she decided to ask Beatrix when she got a chance.

Quickly, as the twins walked outside the train to talk to Mrs. Weasley, Molly fixed her grip on her suitcase and walked onto the train, looking for a compartment to sit in.

"Excuse me?" she heard someone say, and she turned around towards the source of the voice. It was Harry.

"Would you mind sitting in here with me?" he asked.

"Oh, of course not," she said, dragging her suitcase into the compartment and sitting down with Harry. "It's nice to finally talk with you. I'm Molly - oh, and sorry for almost hitting you at the entrance."

"It's fine," he said. "I'm Harry, but I suppose you already know that."

Molly nodded, and they shook hands.

"You look really familiar, though - but I can't remember for the life of me where we would've seen each other," Harry said.

"I think we saw each other at Ollivander's," Molly said.

Harry nodded. "That's where it was. Oh, look, there's that red-haired family you kids were with."

Molly half-looked out the window so that she stayed hidden. Harry was right - the Weasleys were standing directly outside the window, talking about prefects and blowing up toilets and things like that.

"Hey, Mum," one of the twins said, "guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"

Harry shifted in his seat, but he was still listening.

"You know," the twin continued, "that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"

"Who?" Mrs. Weasley said grudgingly.

"Harry Potter!" the twins said in unison.

The little girl - _Ginny,_ Molly remembered, started to beg to see Harry, and Mrs. Weasley tried to dissuade her from going back on the train as Fred was talking about Harry's scar. Molly's eyes darted over to Harry, who was watching the family intently.

"Never mind that," Fred said after Mrs. Weasley was talking about how polite Harry was. "Do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

The talking stopped, and tension hung in the air.

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred," Mrs. Weasley said strictly. "No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."

Molly looked over at Harry again. His face was impassive, not showing any emotion. Molly wondered how Harry would've met the dark wizard that even Mrs. Weasley was scared of.

Suddenly, Molly's mind rushed back to about a year earlier (in her world, that is), and she remembered herself reading a particularly good book. It wasn't what most people would find interesting - it wasn't even a fictional story. It was the abridged version of a college professor's book about how to find hidden symbolism in literature - and Molly had adored it.

She had been reading one part of it when she came across a reference to Harry Potter, talking about the symbolism behind his scar. Up until that point, Molly hadn't even realized he had a scar, but the book, titled _How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids_ , made it very clear that not only did he have one, but it was given to him after his parents were killed, and the person who did it tried to kill him.

The book had named the person who'd tried to kill Harry, but it had seemed like something nonsensical to Molly at the time. Something starting with an _V_ \- nothing she had heard before. She didn't know French yet - she didn't know what the name meant. But looking back on it, she recognized the name.

Voldemort. The name was Voldemort, and the name of the worst Dark Wizard in 50 years that Mrs. Weasley had mentioned was Voldemort. And Molly had overheard Beatrix and Ginny talking about some sort of evil man that Harry had defeated when he was a baby. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Suddenly, the train's whistle sounded, a noise so loud that it jerked Molly out of the past and back into the train car with Harry Potter.

"Hurry up!" Mrs. Weasley called outside to the twins and Ron, and the red-haired brothers rushed onto the train. Ginny started to cry, and the boys trying to comfort her, giving her promises of letters, owls, and Hogwarts toilet seats.

The train jerked forward, and Molly felt herself jolt in her seat as the wheels started to move. Slowly, the vehicle sped up, and the interior of King's Cross disappeared from view.

"Excuse me?" Molly heard a meek voice say.

She and Harry turned around in their seats to see Ron, standing in the train's doorway.

"Can I sit in here?" he asked. "Everywhere else is full."

"Come on in," Harry said, and Ron sat down with the two children.

Molly couldn't help but notice that Ron knew about Harry. Every now and then, he would glance over at Harry as if he was sitting with a celebrity, then look away when Harry looked at him. It felt a little awkward, and she wanted to start up a conversation, but she didn't really know how.

"Hey, Ron," someone said, and when Molly glanced over, she could see the twins standing in the hallway. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a tarantula in there."

"Right," Ron mumbled under his breath. Molly's eyes widened.

The other twin introduced himself and his brothers - he mentioned Ron as well as the twin who had spoken previously.

"See you later, then," he said. "Oh - and hullo, Molly."

"Hi," Molly said, waving her hand weakly as the twins left the compartment.

As soon as the door closed, Ron finally burst.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" he asked, and Harry nodded.

"Well, I thought...well, it could just be one of the twins' jokes," Ron reasoned. "And have you really got...you know…"

Harry lifted his bangs to show a dark scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. Molly and Ron looked at it in amazement.

"Wow," Molly said. "That's really, really cool."

"So that's where You-Know-Who -"

"Yes," Harry said, "but I can't remember it."

"What was it?" Molly asked.

Ron stared. "What was _what_?"

"The thing that happened and gave him the scar," Molly said. "I'm Muggleborn."

Ron had seemed almost offended as Molly said that she didn't know the story, but one admission of being Muggleborn calmed him down.

"Well, long story short," he said as if telling a bedtime story, "this guy...uh, _Voldemort_ , was super cruel."

He said the name with extreme difficulty.

"Voldemort?" Molly said. She was right! The scar _did_ have something to do with Voldemort! In that moment, she felt like she was the smartest person ever.

Ron wasted no time in quieting her down.

"Are you not supposed to say his name?" Molly said.

Ron nodded, his eyes bulging with fear and disbelief.

"Oh," Molly said. "Okay. Go on."

"Well, he went to Harry's house to destroy his family, and he killed Harry's parents and almost killed Harry -"

"How did Vol - uh, _You-Know-Who_ kill Harry's parents?" Molly asked, leaning forward with interest.

"A spell," Ron said. "I don't know what it is yet, but it's a spell - a dangerous one."

"Alright, then," Molly said, trying not to repeat herself.

"And Harry should've died, but he survived - and just like that, You-Know-Who was gone."

"Gone…" Molly said. It wasn't a question - just a murmur. "Just like that…"

"Yeah - isn't that amazing?" Ron said.

"That _is_ amazing," Molly said in a funny accent. "Wait a minute, we're penguins - we can't fly. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Ron and Harry looked at her like she was bonkers.

"Oh, sorry," she said. "It's a Disney World thing."

"You've been," Harry said in the same not-quite-questioning tone that Molly had spoken in earlier. "To the one in Florida."

Molly nodded and shrugged.

"Not that that really matters right now," she said. "I've got better things to focus on. So, back to you - do you really not remember anything about it?"

Harry shook his head. "Just a lot of green light."

"Wow," Ron breathed, trying to keep his eyes from lingering on Harry.

"Are your family wizards, too?" Harry asked Ron.

Ron nodded.

"You should meet them all," Molly said. "My friends and I met them at the Leaky Cauldron back at Diagon Alley - they're really nice."

"And crazy," a girl said. Molly turned her head to see Stella leaning her head into the compartment.

"I was hanging out with Neville and Hannah up front and realized I hadn't figured out somewhere to sit," she said. "Can I sit with you guys?"

Molly shrugged. "Why not?" she said.

"Yay!" Stella said. She slid into the compartment and sat down across from Harry, right next to Molly.

"So, whatcha talking 'bout?" she asked casually.

"The Weasleys," Molly said. "You literally entered the room continuing the conversation."

"Oh, right," she said.

"Well, your life must be interesting," Harry said. "It must be cool growing up with three wizard brothers -"

"Five," Molly, Stella, and Ron said in unison. Molly broke out into a fit of giggles.

"There's Bill and Charlie," Stella explained. "They graduated earlier."

Molly nodded as Stella helped her back into her seat.

"I've got a lot to live up to," Ron admitted. "Bill was Head Boy - Charlie was Quidditch captain - and now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot -"

"I can see that," Stella said.

"- but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny."

"And it's hard to do anything because you'll always be overshadowed," Molly said.

Ron's eyes widened. "How do you know that?" he said. "Do you have siblings, too?"

Molly shook her head. "Your mom told me," she said. "And my mom had five brothers, too."

Ron nodded in understanding.

"And then there's all the hand-me-downs," Stella said, as if she was prompting something. Before Ron could widen his eyes and ask how she knew about all the hand-me-downs, she said, "Sisters. Three younger ones. I don't get hand-me-downs, but I give them."

Ron nodded again. "Bill's robes, Charlie's wand, and Percy's rat."

"Scabbers?" Stella asked, and Ron nodded.

"How did you know that?" Molly said.

"He told me about it in between freestyles," Stella said. "Y'know, back at the Leaky Cauldron?"

Molly nodded, remembering Stella's rapping.

"Do you want to see him?" Ron asked.

Harry, who had kept the slightest bit quiet as he was taking everything in, started to nod exuberantly.

"Okay," Ron said, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. He withdrew a plump grey rat, whose belly was moving up and down slowly like one would if they were asleep.

"He's useless," Ron said. "He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being a prefect, but we couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

His face grew the same color as his hair.

"It's fine," Harry said. "I didn't have any money of my own until a month ago."

"Really?" Molly and Ron gasped in unison. They looked at each other and tried to keep from giggling.

Harry nodded. "And until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort -"

The entire compartment erupted in gasping.

"What?" Harry said, oblivious.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said with respect. "Out of everyone in here, I wouldn't have thought you would say it!"

"I'm not trying to be _brave_ or anything, saying the name," Harry said. "I just never really knew you shouldn't say it - I mean, Molly had said it before - you see what I mean? I've got so much to learn, and I bet…" His voice grew soft and nervous. "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

Molly's eyes darted over to Stella, who was struggling to not laugh.

"Oh, I bet you'll be fine," Molly said.

"Yeah," Ron said. "There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn soon enough."

"Like us!" Stella said, and she and Molly started to giggle again.

Suddenly, Molly's eyes darted to the window. "Whoa," she said.

The tall buildings of London had disappeared, replaced by gorgeous fields and roaming cows. Molly wished that Mackenzie's phone worked - wherever she was sitting - so that she could capture the gorgeous view.

It was about 12:30 when the children heard a feeble woman's voice from the hallway.

"Candy from the trolley?" she called out.

"Ooh! Candy!" Stella exclaimed, jumping up to open up the compartment door. She was reaching for her first piece of candy when she withdrew her hand.

"I almost forgot - you get first pick, Harry," she said.

"Really?" Harry said. When Stella nodded, Harry nearly jumped out of his seat and ran to the candy trolley.

"What about you, Ron?" Molly asked.

"Mum brought me sandwiches," he said sheepishly.

"Oh," Molly said. "Okay."

When Harry came back, his arms were full of candy, and Stella mirrored his entrance when she walked back into the compartment.

"Hungry?" Ron said as he took out a brown paper bag - _probably filled with his mom's sandwiches_ , Molly thought.

"Starving," Harry said, and Stella nodded along.

The two children sat down as Ron began to take out his sandwiches. He looked at the inside of one and grumbled. "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

"Swap you," Harry said, holding up a candy.

"You don't want this, it's -"

"Swap him," Stella said, shooting a look at Ron. He shrugged and gave Harry his sandwich, taking the candy for himself.

"What are these?" Harry said, holding up a small bag labeled _Chocolate Frogs_. "They're not really frogs...uh, are they?"

"No," Ron said. "But check the card - I'm -"

"Card?" Molly asked.

"The Chocolate Frogs have trading cards in them - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I'm missing Agrippa and Ptolemy."

Molly smiled. She could understand the idea of trading cards - after all, she had practically been raised on _A Charlie Brown Christmas_.

Harry unwrapped the first of the Frogs and looked at the front of the card.

"So this is Dumbledore!" he cried happily.

"Dumbledore?" Molly wondered out loud. It seemed such an odd name.

"Don't tell me you don't know who Dumbledore is!" Ron said. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks -"

"Can I see the card after you?" Molly asked, and Harry nodded, the slightest bit absentminded. He turned over the card, then turned it over again and gasped.

"What is it?" Molly asked.

"He's gone!"

"Well," Ron said, "you can't expect him to hang around all day. He'll be back."

Harry handed the card to Molly as Ron talked about Morgana and collecting the cards and other things like that. Molly looked at the card, which talked about this man - Albus Dumbledore - who was currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. It mentioned alchemy discoveries with a guy named Nicolas Flamel, the defeat of a guy named Grindelwald -

"Grindelwald?" Molly thought out loud. Hadn't Mrs. Weasley mentioned something about Grindelwald? She started to think about it, but then she turned over the card to see a man with silvery-white hair and glasses.

"Hey!" Molly exclaimed. "This Dumbledore guy's back."

"Can I see?" Harry asked, and Molly gave back the card.

He looked at it peculiarly and said to Ron, "You know, in the Muggle world, people don't move around in photos."

"Really?" Ron asked, fascinated. "What, they don't move at all?"

Molly nodded.

"Weird!" Ron said.

Harry and Ron went back to eating Chocolate Frogs and collecting the cards inside, while Molly desperately wished that she had brought a book. As cool as it was to be in a train compartment with _the_ Harry Potter, the train ride had quickly become overly long and boring. Finally, the Chocolate Frogs were put down, and Harry pointed to a container that looked a lot like a carton of milk.

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Candy Beans," Molly read from the side.

"You have to be careful with those, you know," Ron said warily. "When they say Every Flavor -"

"...they mean _every flavor,_ " Stella finished. "I've had them a few times."

"Yeah, you get like all the ordinary flavors, but you also get, like, spinach and liver and things like that. George reckons he got a booger-flavored one once."

"Oh, that's gross!" Molly said.

Ron nodded in agreement as he picked a green one up - _probably mint_ , Molly guessed, _although I guess you can't be sure._

He bit in and almost immediately gagged.

"Sprouts," he finally said when he got his breath back. Molly tried to keep from giggling.

"Why don't you try one, Stella?" she said.

She picked a dark one out and bit in before her face turned red.

"Broken computer," she said.

"Ew!" Molly cried. "How do you know what that tastes like?"

Her face turned even redder.

"I just guessed," she admitted. "It almost feels like pop rocks mixed with fudge - you know what? You try."

Molly looked at the carton, and after much deliberation, she took out a brown one.

"I bet there isn't a single candy-flavored bean in this thing," she said as she popped the bean into her mouth and immediately tasted chocolate.

"What'd you get?" Stella asked.

"Defeat," Molly said.

Stella eyed her suspiciously, then shrugged.

"I want to keep on trying some," Harry said, and Molly gave him the carton. He and Ron spent the next few minutes trying beans of all different flavors - grass, pepper, curry, and many others. Molly left them alone, looking out the window at the woods that now surrounded the train.

"Are we in Scotland yet?" Stella asked.

Molly's eyes widened as she looked back to Stella. "Scotland?" she asked as a reply.

"Yeah," Stella said matter-of-factly. "Hogwarts is in Scotland."

"Really!" Molly exclaimed, not questioningly as much as amazed. Stella nodded anyway, as if confirming a fact.

A sudden knock at the door made Molly jump. The door opened, and a boy with a round face peered in - the same boy that Molly had seen complain about losing his toad. What had that woman said his name was? Neil? Nelson?

"Have any of you seen a toad recently?" he said, and shot them a puppy-eyed look.

The children looked at each other and shook their heads.

He let out a clenched sigh. "I've lost him!" he wailed, not speaking to anyone in particular. "He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," Harry said gently.

The boy nodded absentmindedly. "Well, if you see him…"

He turned to leave, then turned back to the children. "Oh, hello, Stella," he said.

"Hey, Neville," she said.

 _Neville_ \- that's what his name was. Molly felt embarrassed for not remembering, then reminded herself that it was her first day here.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," Ron said. "If I had a toad I'd want to lose it as quickly as I could. Mind you, I did bring Scabbers, so I can't really talk."

"Is he still asleep?" Molly asked, relieved to be talking about something that she knew about.

"He could've died and we wouldn't be able to tell the difference," Ron said. "I tried to turn him yellow - you know, just for fun - but it didn't really work. Here, I'll show you."

Molly helped Ron pull out his trunk, from which he withdrew a chipped ash wand that looked the slightest bit like Ava's. He was about to cast the spell when the door burst open.

On the other side of the door was a girl with bushy brown hair and warm chocolate eyes. When she opened her mouth to speak, her front teeth were the slightest bit larger than the rest of her teeth. The round-headed boy - _Neville_ , Molly remembered - was standing next to her.

Suddenly, it dawned on Molly - these were the other kids that her new friends had wanted to meet! They had talked about a round-faced boy with a toad and his grandmother - who just _had_ to be Neville - and a girl with bushy brown hair, who was probably the girl standing in front of them. To check, she looked over at Stella, who looked just as excited as she had when the Weasleys had walked into the Leaky Cauldron a few days before.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said.

"No, sorry," Molly said. The girl's eyes darted to the hand-me-down wand Ron held in his hand.

"Are you doing magic?" she asked. Before Ron could respond, she said, "Let's see it, then."

"Alright," Ron said, his voice shaking with what was almost like stage fright. He cleared his throat and said the incantation.

" _Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,_

 _Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."_

Scabbers snored, his fur remaining unchanged. Stella looked on with a knowing grin.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" the girl asked.

Ron shrugged.

"Well, it's not very good, is it?" she continued. "I've tried a few simple spells and they've all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, so it was a humongous surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased - it's the best school of witchcraft and wizardry there is. I've learned all our course books by heart, I just hope it's enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

The girl - Hermione - reminded Molly a lot of herself in the way that she spoke as though she was running out of time to speak.

"Ron Weasley," Ron said quietly.

"Harry Potter," Harry said.

"Are you really?" Hermione asked, and Molly nodded. "I know all about you - I got some extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century._ "

"You got background reading, too?" Molly asked. Hermione nodded briskly. "My friend Beatrix got a book about Hogwarts at Flourish and Blotts - it's called _Hogwarts: A History_."

"Oh, I have that one, too!" Hermione said excitedly. "It has so many fun facts in it - like that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside the castle -"

"Or you can't use electronics near magical places because the electronics and the magic mingle too much," Molly said, remembering her first night at the Leaky Cauldron.

"Or boys can't go into the girls' dormitories but girls can go into the boys' -"

"Or the ceiling of the Great Hall is enchanted to look like the sky -"

"Okay, what did you say about me being in books?" Harry interjected, and Molly looked at him like he was joking until she remembered that the first _Harry Potter_ book didn't come out until 1998.

"Goodness, you don't know?" Hermione said, shocked. "I'd have found out everything I could if it was me. Do any of you know which House you'll be in?"

"Anything but Slytherin," Molly said.

"Hufflepuff," Stella said.

"Same as Molly," Harry said.

"Gryffindor," Ron said.

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor myself, it sounds by far the best," Hermione said. "I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."

Molly was tempted to tell her about that girl that Zoë had mentioned - Luna Lovegood, her name was - but she bit her tongue, remembering that Luna wasn't a past student, but one of the characters of the books themselves.

"Well, we should go looking for Neville's toad. You four had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

"Bye," Molly said quietly as Hermione closed the door.

"Whatever House she's in, I hope I'm not," Ron said.

"Why?" Molly said. "She seemed lovely."

"That's because your friend's read that book," Ron said, slipping his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, probably knew it was a dud."

"Well, we should probably change," Molly said. "I'll see if there's an empty compartment or a bathroom or something on this thing."

"I think there's a bathroom at the back," Harry said as Molly and Stella stood up, grabbing their trunks.

"Bye," Molly said as they slipped out. As she closed the door, Molly could barely hear Harry asking Ron about his brothers and the Houses they were in.

She turned to Stella to ask her what the plan was, but she suddenly realized that she looked more lopsided than she had at King's Cross. She glanced down at the lighter side - and it was the side that held the cage that Stella had placed Usnavi in.

Usnavi was gone.

"Stella, where's your cat?" Molly asked, trying to stay calm.

"What?" Stella asked. "He's right here - AHH!"

She had held up the cat cage and come to the realization that her cat - whom she had explained to Molly was named after a character in a Broadway musical called _In the Heights_ (which Molly recognized as the graphic that was on Stella's t-shirt from Universal) - was missing.

"Where is he?" she said frantically. "Where's my angel child?"

"Probably the same place where Neville's toad is," Molly said, trying to keep it light.

"Probably," Stella said, without understanding the simple fact that Molly had been joking. "Let's change."

"Well, aren't we going to look for him?" Molly asked, quickly glancing down to her hand to make sure that her owl was still in its cage.

"He'll turn up," Stella said. "Malfoy and his mates aren't in their cabin right now - we can use that really quickly, then maybe we can hang out with Madison or Jonah or one of them."

Molly shrugged and followed Stella to an empty compartment filled with green and silver trunks. The seats looked as if they had just been relieved of a great burden.

"There we go," Stella said as she opened up her trunk and took out the robes and ties she'd gotten at Madame Malkin's. Molly did the same, and the girls quickly undressed and put their robes on.

"What happens to the ties when we get Sorted?" Molly asked.

"I don't know," Stella admitted. "Maybe they magically change color."

She wiggled her fingers to demonstrate _magic_ , and Molly giggled.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a pale, blond boy and two other kids stood in the hallway.

"Well, well, well," the pale boy said. Molly remembered Stella talking about a kid named _Malfoy_ who was in the compartment, and Zoë had mentioned a pale boy named _Draco_ Malfoy who had been talking to Harry at Madame Malkin's. Was this him?

"What do we have here?" the boy said. "Kids who want to dress in _our_ private compartment."

"Well, usually, kids just say hello," Molly muttered under her breath.

"What are your names?" he asked in a voice that said that he wasn't necessarily keen on being their friend.

"I'm Molly, and this is Stella," Molly said, her voice wavering.

"And what are you doing here?"

"We needed to change, and we were down with two boys," Stella said truthfully. "All the other compartments are full."

"And what about the bathroom?" the boy said. "Couldn't you have changed there?"

"We don't know where the bathroom is," Molly said (sure, Harry had said it was in the back of the train, but he'd just gotten here, too). "You never told us your name."

"The name's Malfoy - Draco Malfoy," the boy said. So he _was_ Draco! "Are you two purebloods?"

Suddenly, Molly remembered what Zoë had said about Draco - _He is totally anti-Muggleborn._ When Molly had asked what a Muggleborn was, Zoë had explained, and then she had said, _He hates them - he even calls them Mudbloods._

"Uh…" Molly stammered. She wasn't sure whether to lie and get away safely or stay, tell the truth, and risk getting hurt - the boys next to Draco looked like they could hurt someone extremely easily.

Finally, Molly decided.

"No," she said.

Draco's eyes widened.

"You're not one of us?" he said. "And you _dare_ use our private compartment?"

Molly bit her lip and nodded.

"Crabbe, Goyle, how do people like them pay for spreading their filthy mudblood germs all over our compartment -"

"That's it," Stella said. She reached into her trunk and pulled out her ebony wand.

"What are you going to do?" Draco taunted. " _Presto-chango?_ "

"I have something better," Stella said. " _Petrificus Totalus!"_

She waved her wand, and Draco froze in place, his arms and legs locked together. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him with shock, then back at Stella.

"I can do it again, you know," she said.

They grabbed Draco's body and cleared the way for Molly and Stella to walk out.

"So what was that spell you cast?" Molly asked as Stella put away her wand.

"The Full Body-Bind," she said. "It...well, binds the body, like you saw. It's easy to undo."

"Wow," Molly said. "That seems pretty advanced."

"Not really," Stella said. "Hermione did it in first year - then again, she did a Protean Charm by fifth, and that's advanced NEWT material, but -"

"Hold on, hold on," Molly said. "You're confusing me here."

"Okay," Stella said. "Let me break it down. Hermione did the Full Body-Bind by first year, but she's really smart. She did a really advanced charm by fifth year, and that's something you learn in seventh."

"Got it," Molly said. "So where are we going to sit now that we've changed?"

As if on cue, one of the compartment doors opened, and Ava's head peered out of it.

"Come on in, you guys!" she said. "Jonah's here."

"Perfect!" Molly said as the two girls scampered into the compartment. Stella decided to go back out for a second and undo the Body-Bind spell that she had placed on Draco, and Molly sat down with Ava.

Almost as soon as she had sat down, a voice perked up, almost as if it was talking through the walls.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time," it said. "Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

 _Oh, no,_ Molly thought, not for herself, but for Stella. Usnavi was still missing, and if she left her luggage here - including the cage where Stella kept Usnavi…

"Come on!" Ava said, jerking Molly out of her worried thoughts.

The children walked out of the compartment to a crowd forming in the hallway. Molly could see Draco's blonde hair in the crowd - Stella must've undone the spell.

Finally, the train lurched to a stop, and the crowd thinned as the children walked outside. Molly felt a cool breeze in her hair as she stepped onto a small platform. Suddenly, a light bobbed over the group, and another voice called out.

"Firs' years!" the voice - definitely a man's - called. "Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

Molly looked in the direction of the voice to see the same tall man she had seen at Diagon Alley the first day they arrived.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Molly and the other children ran over to the man, who started to lead the group through what seemed like it could be a forest. She wished that people were talking - it was a tiny bit scary when nobody was making a sound.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here."

Molly turned her body to follow the path, then looked up. In front of her was something she'd never seen the likes of before.

Looming over the children was a tall, stone castle resting on a cliff. Turrets touched the sky gracefully, with one large tower breaking through the nighttime clouds. It was absolutely gorgeous, just like any castle Molly had seen in any Disney movie.

"No more 'n four to a boat!" the tall man called, gesturing to small rowboats lining the shores of the lake in front of Hogwarts. Molly sat down with Jonah, Ava, and Stella, who had caught up to the other children during the walk, in one of the many boats. Harry and Ron sat together, joined by Neville and Hermione.

"Everyone in?" the man called out, and when nobody contradicted him, he said, "All right - FORWARD!"

And suddenly, as if by magic, the boats moved forward.

"Whoa," Molly breathed as she watched the boats' reflections in the lake. When she looked up, the castle towered over her and the other children.

"Everybody duck!" the man yelled, and the entire group of kids brought their heads down. Molly felt a curtain of ivy brush her neck as the boats moved into what seemed like a tunnel. The boats travelled down the tunnel in silence for a few minutes until the passageway opened up into a cavern.

"Come on out," the man said. One by one, the boats hit what seemed to Molly like an underground beach, and the children inside stepped out.

"There's a cat an' a toad in 'ere," the man said, looking inside one of the emptied boats. "Do they belong t'any of yeh?"

"Trevor!" a proper-sounding voice called out. When Molly turned to see the source, she saw Neville barreling towards the boat.

"Usnavi!" Stella yelled, running as fast as she could in the same direction. Molly already knew they were going to crash, but she couldn't look away.

With a splash, Stella and Neville ran into each other and fell into the water. The water paid them no attention, and kept on rolling in and out of the cavern.

"Sorry," Stella said as she attempted to get back up before slipping and falling back into the water.

"Not your fault," Neville said. "I'd much rather have a cat than a toad."

Molly giggled as she watched them help each other up, finally taking their pets out of the boat and walking over, dirty and wet, to the other kids.

"I know somethin' that can 'elp yeh," the tall man said. He grabbed a pink umbrella and waved it in Stella's direction - Molly was surprised he didn't have a wand like everybody else - and suddenly a hot wind blew over the children. When it calmed, Stella and Neville were completely dry, Stella thrown back onto her rear end.

"Come on, this way," the man said, leading the children up a set of stone steps. "Yeh ready?"

When all the children nodded in anticipation, he knocked three times on a wooden door - loud, hard knocks that rang through the cavern.

And they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And just when Molly thought she couldn't wait any longer, the door opened.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this! Here are this chapter's behind-the-scenes fun facts.**

 **1) The inspiration for Stella _totally_ would call Usnavi her angel child.**

 **2) Speaking of Stella, she helped out a lot on this chapter, giving me ideas for her interaction with the Candy Lady and her literal "run-in" with Neville.**

 **3) I believe there are three different AVPM references in this chapter (I told you I liked it!). See if you can find them!**

 **4) If I was told to wake up immediately for rope drop at the Magic Kingdom, I would totally freak out.**

 **5) The directions from Diagon Alley to King's Cross were provided by Google Maps - and it does indeed pass by the Palace Theatre.**

 **6) Draco's first line is based on Tamatoa's second verse in "Shiny," from Disney's _Moana._**

 **7) Stella's inspiration chose the spell she used to incapacitate Draco.**

 **8) By this time, I had figured out who Usnavi's namesake was - hence the reference mid-chapter.**

 **9) The book _How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids_ really exists! It's a great book that I would definitely recommend.**

 **10) The chapter title is a reference to the YouTube vlog series _SeeYaReelSoon_ , in which a couple named Joe and Ashley film their trips to Disney World. Joe has made up a song for the car ride from the airport to the parks called "All Aboard the Magical Express."**

 **11) And, yes, I did make a _Frozen_ reference. Get used to it - I love my Disney references.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	5. Not Slytherin

**Hi everyone! I just got back from a really fun vacation, and it's time for the next chapter! I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5:**_

 _ **Not Slytherin**_

" _Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, 'It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in_ Hogwarts: A History. _'_  
 _It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens."_

On the other side of the door was a short woman with graying hair.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," the tall man said.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," the woman - Professor McGonagall - said.

 _Hagrid -_ Molly finally knew the man's name, and now he was leaving. Of course - she couldn't believe her luck.

The children walked into the enormous entrance hall, with torches bolted to the walls, fire flickering from them. A large roar came from a nearby room - _the rest of the kids at school,_ Molly thought - but the children were led into a smaller room to the side. Once they were all together, they looked at Professor McGonagall, ready for whatever she had to say.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly…"

"Banquet?" Molly mouthed to Jonah. "There's a banquet here?"

"Yeah. Shut up," Jonah mouthed back, and Molly directed her attention back to Professor McGonagall.

"...but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room."

 _Man, these Houses are serious,_ Molly thought. Her yearning to not be in Slytherin increased - she didn't know if she could take free time with Draco Malfoy.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history…"

Molly rolled her eyes.

"...and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours."

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes scanned the room, lingering for a second on Stella's windblown hair.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," Professor McGonagall said. "Please wait quietly."

She walked gracefully out of the room. As soon as the last corner of her dress fluttered out the door, the room burst into chaos.

"Do I look okay?" Molly said frantically, darting from child to child. Eventually, she came upon Harry and Ron talking about some sort of Sorting test.

Her eyes widened, and she darted over to Madison (it wasn't hard to find her - she was one of the tallest students, along with Ron).

"Madison," she asked, "what do you have to do to get sorted into a House?"

"Nothing," Madison said. "They put an old hat on your head and it sorts you."

"Really," Molly not-quite-queried.

Madison nodded.

"I'm going to tell Harry - he's all nervous about some sort of horrible test," Molly said. But before she could start walking towards Harry, she saw a pearly-white something float directly through her.

 _It's a ghost,_ Molly thought, _and a pretty one._

The ghost was one of a girl, with wispy black hair and a grey-looking dress.

"Who's that?" Molly whispered to Madison.

"That's the Grey Lady," Madison said. "She gets important later on. Oh, and I wanted to give you something."

She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and gave it to Molly. When Molly unfolded it, she saw what looked like some sort of poem - maybe a song?

"It's the lyrics to the Hogwarts school song," Madison said. "I know you enjoy singing, and - well, I thought you'd enjoy it."

"Cool," Molly said. "So what's the tune?"

"Whatever you want it to be - I think," she said. "It's in a deleted scene for the Goblet of Fire - the fourth movie."

"Oh, that's so neat!" Molly said. She opened her mouth to talk more, but then she looked up to see Professor McGonagall entering the room and silencing the ghosts.

"Now form a line and follow me," she said, gesturing to the door.

Molly heard a small squeal coming from Ava's direction as the children walked in a line-shaped group through the doors and into the Great Hall.

"Whoa," Molly said. (Molly was very fond of saying "whoa" when she was impressed.)

The hall was glorious. Four long, rectangular tables lined the hall, with a platform (probably for the teachers) at the other end of the room. Candles hung in midair, lighting up the room. The ceiling, instead of showing a regular old vaulted ceiling, showed a gorgeous starry sky.

McGonagall led the kids just in front of the platform, and Molly couldn't help but yearn for a place to sit down as the teacher grabbed a four-legged stool and an old, pointed hat.

"Is that the hat?" she whispered to Madison, and Madison nodded. She waited for a few seconds as the children grew silent - and then the hat began to sing.

" _Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _How could the hat eat itself?_ Molly thought.

" _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

"He composes a new song every year," Ava whispered to Molly.

"He's good," Molly said.

" _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart._

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart."_

Molly nodded along with the song. Gryffindor was sounding pretty good.

" _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw_

 _If you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends._

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends."_

 _Definitely not a Slytherin,_ Molly thought. _If not Gryffindor...maybe Ravenclaw?_

" _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

 _Clever line,_ Molly thought as the hall applauded the hat.

"When I call your name," Professor McGonagall said, "you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"

A perky blonde girl ran up to the hat, put it on, and sat down on the stool. A few seconds later-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat called.

The girl - Hannah - took off the hat and sat down at a table with yellow decorations.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Susan took off the hat and ran over next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

Bit by bit, the group of kids began to thin as children were sorted.

"Clark, Madison!"

Madison snuck through the crowd and sat on the stool with the hat on her head. Almost immediately, the hat cried, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Molly nodded - Madison seemed like she would fit Zoë's description of a Hufflepuff.

"Evans, Molly!"

Molly's eyes widened. She hadn't realized she was going to be called so early. Was there a mistake? Was there anyone whose last name started with a D?

Quickly, she ran up to the stool and grabbed the hat. It felt like a combination of leather and sandpaper. She put it on her head, and it fell over her eyes as she fumbled for the stool and sat down.

"Let's see," a voice said in her head. Molly jumped in her seat.

"Lots of things to choose from," the voice said. "Smart, kind, brave, and a hint of ambition. So where do you belong?"

 _Not Slytherin,_ she thought frantically.

"Okay, we can rule that out then," the voice said. "So - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor?"

Molly tried to think, but it was hard knowing that the Hat could read her every thought.

 _Well, I'm not nearly nice and loyal enough for Hufflepuff,_ she thought. _Not like Madison. I hardly trust anyone._

"Okay," the voice said. "You seem really smart - what about Ravenclaw?"

 _I hardly know anyone in Ravenclaw,_ Molly thought, as much as Ravenclaw kinda sorta appealed to her. _Gryffindor's where all the action is._

"Oh, so you know Miss Brown, then!" the voice said. "Excellent."

 _No, no, I don't know..uh, Miss Brown,_ Molly thought.

"Is it just that you want to be in Gryffindor?" the voice questioned.

 _Uh...kinda,_ Molly thought.

She didn't know why, but she could almost hear a voice in her head - another voice, not the Hat - and it was singing.

The Hat heard it too. "What is that song?" he asked Molly.

Suddenly, Molly recognized the tune - and the lyrics.

" _I want adventure in the great wide somewhere,_

 _I want it more than I can tell,_

 _And perhaps it might be grand to have someone understand,_

 _I want so much more than they've got planned…"_

Why did Molly always think of a song whenever she was in a rough spot? Was it going to get her into trouble? She sat on the stool, waiting in darkness for the Hat to make up its mind.

Finally, the Hat spoke. "I can sense that you could definitely be brave - and you're going to need to, sooner or later. You're going to need to make some choices for the greater good and not for yourself. And you've been brave before - like on the train."

Suddenly, Molly remembered standing up to Malfoy on the train.

 _You think it's where I belong?_ she thought.

The Hat didn't speak, but Molly felt a warmth that said if the Hat had had a head, it would be nodding.

It took a deep breath. "GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled to the room.

Molly sighed with relief and took off the Hat. The world seemed to glow for a split second as her eyes adjusted, and then she saw the room clapping for her.

She smiled, stood up, and walked over to the Gryffindor table. Percy, who was sitting next to her, patted her on the back.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

It seemed almost easier to watch the Sorting now that Molly didn't need to worry about what House she was going to be in. She high-fived Seamus as he walked over to the table.

"Granger, Hermione!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Yes!" Molly whispered. As much as people weren't as keen of her, she was really excited to be in the same House as Hermione.

"Hullo again, Molly," Hermione said as she sat down.

"Hi, Hermione," Molly said.

"Longbottom, Neville!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Hey, Neville!" Molly called as the boy walked over, realized he still had the hat on, then handed it to "MacDougal, Morag" and went back.

"Hullo, uh...what's your name, again?"

"Molly," she said. Her eyes darted to the toad Neville held in his hands. "Hey, Trevor," she said.

"Ribbit," Trevor croaked.

"Malfoy, Draco!"

Molly saw a streak of blond hair swagger up to the hat. Before Malfoy's head had even touched the hat, it called, "SLYTHERIN!"

He seemed very proud as he took off the hat and sat at the Slytherin table.

"Martinez, Stella!"

A shriek of excitement came from the crowd as Stella ran up to the platform and put the hat on. A few seconds later -

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Nice!" Molly whispered to herself, remembering that Stella had shown an interest in becoming a Hufflepuff.

One more person, and then "Mullins, Jonah" was on the stand.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called.

Molly could see that working out for him, although she still had a bit of Slytherin prejudice.

A few other people went - a pair of twins, a girl named Sally-Anne - and then Harry's name was called out.

"Potter, did she say?"

" _The_ Harry Potter?"

Molly couldn't help but roll her eyes - this was probably the exact same reaction he would get if he showed up at a school back home.

The hat went over Harry's eyes, staying there for about half a minute before -

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Molly and the rest of the room cheered - louder than they had for anyone else. The twins, a few seats behind Molly, started calling, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

 _Ava's next,_ Molly thought.

Sure enough, "Poule, Ava" was the next name that Professor McGonagall read.

Ava walked up, put the hat on, and sat down. A moment's pause -

"SLYTHERIN!"

 _Really?_ Molly thought. Sure, Ava looked like she was excited, but she didn't look like she was shrewd or sneaky. She had been the one who had helped Molly out the first day in Diagon Alley.

"Room, Mackenzie!"

Mackenzie's pinkish-brown hair stumbled through the crowd as she rushed up to the hat. She put it on. It took a bit longer for the hat to decide with her, but after a minute or two -

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Molly cheered. She was in the same house as Mackenzie! This was bound to be fun.

Mackenzie, grinning ear to ear, took off the hat and ran over to the table, high-fiving Molly along the way. She sat down next to Harry, who was sitting across from a ghost dressed in particularly old-fashioned clothing.

"Taylor, Beatrix!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

 _Nice one,_ Molly thought, remembering how Beatrix had pored over her copy of _Hogwarts: A History._

"Thomas, Dean!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Turpin, Lisa!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Weasley, Ronald!"

Ron, his skin the color of an apple, stumbled up to the platform. He put the hat on. One second, two seconds -

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry cheered as Ron ran over to the table.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," Percy said as if he was a waiter at a fancy restaurant congratulating a customer on a good choice.

"Willis, Zoë!"

Zoë skipped up to the platform and put on the hat. After a bit of waiting, the hat called, "SLYTHERIN!"

 _Okay,_ Molly thought. _She had wanted Slytherin._

"Zabini, Blaise!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Professor McGonagall finally rolled up the scroll of names and put the Sorting Hat away.

"Pretty big year this year," Percy said. "Lots of new kids."

Molly felt the teeniest bit guilty because of the fact that eight of the "new kids" weren't supposed to be there, but she tried to nudge the feeling away. She hadn't _asked_ to come here, after all.

The man from the Chocolate Frog card - Albus Dumbledore - had stood up while Molly was thinking, and he started to speak.

"Welcome!" he called, stretching out the word, and the entire room seemed to quiet even more than it already had. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Molly stifled a giggle. She looked over at Harry and Mackenzie - Harry had a look of befuddlement on his face, and Mackenzie was beaming with excitement.

"Is he - a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy.

"Mad? He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But," Percy said, lowering his voice, "he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Molly looked at the table and realized for the first time that it was covered in food.

"Whoa," she said.

"Dig in!" Mackenzie called to Molly, and Molly picked out a particularly good-looking piece of steak, then got very excited when she saw a plate of bacon (Molly loved bacon, no matter what time of day).

The conversation was pretty normal, the ghosts talking about the House rivalries and the witches and wizards talking about their families and their lives before Hogwarts. Molly tried to take it all in, but she was startled when she heard a cry of pain come from Harry just after a particularly large bite of chocolate ice cream.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah - I'm fine," he said shakily. "Percy, who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?"

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's nervous - that's Professor Snape. Teaches Potions, but everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape does."

"Really," Molly said.

Percy nodded.

Suddenly, the desserts disappeared, and Dumbledore cleared his throat from the podium.

"Ahem," he said. "Just a few more words now - I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

Molly readjusted herself in her seat to see Dumbledore better.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore looked at the Weasley twins, who rolled their eyes.

"I have also been asked by a certain Mr. Argus Filch, the caretaker, to remind you that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

Molly nodded along with the speech.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch, the flying instructor."

A woman in the front stood up, presumably Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Molly raised an eyebrow, and Harry laughed.

"He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy.

"Must be," Percy said cautiously

He said a few other things, but Molly had diverted her attention back to Dumbledore.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried.

This was what Madison had given Molly the lyrics for! She took out the paper, which had become crinkled from resting in her pocket.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," Dumbledore said boldly, "and off we go!"

And the school, including Molly, bellowed:

" _Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

 _Teach us something please,_

 _Whether we be old and bald_

 _Or young with scabby knees._

 _Our heads could do with filling_

 _With some interesting stuff,_

 _For now they're bare and full of air,_

 _Dead flies and bits of fluff._

 _So teach us things worth knowing,_

 _Bring back what we've forgot,_

 _Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

 _And learn until our brains all rot."_

Molly finished with a high operatic note, while at least half of the school was still singing. The Weasley twins finished last, with a slow funeral march as their tune of choice.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said when they finished. "A magic beyond all we do here!"

Molly was tempted to say "Hear, hear!" but decided against it.

"And now, bedtime," Dumbledore said. "Off you trot!"

Molly stood up, fixed her robes, and walked out of the hall with Percy and the other first years. The group had to stop for a second to get around a bunch of walking sticks that were held up by a poltergeist named Peeves ("He wasn't in the movies," Mackenzie said), but then they arrived at a painting of a fat woman with a pink dress on.

"Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," Percy replied.

"Carry on, then," the woman said, and the painting swung open like a door. The children walked in, and a large, cozy room awaited them.

"That's the Gryffindor common room," Mackenzie whispered to Molly.

"I could read for hours in here - if I'd brought any books," Molly whispered back. Mackenzie giggled.

Percy pointed out the doors to both sets of dormitories, and Molly, Mackenzie, Hermione, Lavender, and the other girls walked up the stairs to their beds.

"Well, this was an exciting day," Molly said as she unpacked the trunk that had been brought to her room.

"Yeah," Mackenzie said. "See you tomorrow."

"You, too," Molly said. She attempted to get comfortable in her new bed, but a few minutes later, she called back out to Mackenzie.

"What do we have first tomorrow?" she asked.

"Double History of Magic," Mackenzie said, studying her schedule. "They never show it in the movies, though. We'll have to see how it is."

"Okay, then," Molly said. "See you tomorrow."

"You, too," Mackenzie said.

This time, Molly did get comfortable in her bed, and after a few minutes, she had fallen fast asleep.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-scenes fun facts.**

 **1) I got a question in a review about why I had Molly's name be the same as Mrs. Weasley. The reason - my name _is_ Molly! I also thought it would be a neat juxtaposition - Molly doesn't curse at all, no matter what the circumstances, while Mrs. Weasley...well, you know.**

 **2) One thing that I do want to clear up is what house Molly was put in. I have seen many things online warning against putting a main character in Gryffindor, so I wanted to justify putting Molly in Gryffindor. I decided to put her in that house for six main reasons:**

 ***When I took the Pottermore test, I was put in Gryffindor, and Molly is based on me.**

 ***For the story's sake, it would be easier to put her in Gryffindor in order to get Molly close to the action.**

 ***While she is fairly smart, Molly values the bravery known as a common trait of Gryffindors. She doesn't know if she belongs there, but she definitely values bravery in a person.**

 ***The story is split between all eight people from the future, so the other houses will get plenty of representation - and the stereotype that "all Slytherins are bad" will be eschewed thoroughly.**

 ***Molly in the story is based on me before reading the books, so _of course_ she'd have a bit of Slytherin prejudice (and _of course_ she'd want to be in the same house as Harry and Ron). One of the parts of the story will be her overcoming her prejudice (and there will probably be a Zootopia reference in there somewhere.)**

 ***I totally wanted to put in the Beauty and the Beast reference. (Speaking of which, I have seen the movie, and I absolutely _adored_ it!)**

 **So that's why I thought it would be best to put Molly in Gryffindor. (This is the end of the super-long rant that I have created.)**

 **3) The last names for each character, as well as the House they were put in, were decided by a combination of their inspiration and/or Pottermore.**

 **4) Dumbledore's welcome speech - or at least the opening to it - has a slight reference to AVPM.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	6. A New Normal

**Hi! Here's Chapter 6, which involves Molly's first few days at Hogwarts. Enjoy!**

 **EDIT: Sorry I had to delete this and put it back up again! The timing was acting weird and it was making it so that nobody saw the chapter. Thanks!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6:**_

 _ **A New Normal**_

"' _What have we got today?' Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.  
_ ' _Double Potions with the Slytherins,' said Ron. 'Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true.'  
_ ' _Wish McGonagall favored us,' said Harry."_

Molly woke up excited (tired, but excited) for the week ahead. It was time for her first class, double History of Magic, and she had always enjoyed learning new things.

Almost immediately, she realized that she was going to have to learn a _lot_.

First was the location of the classes. The rooms were hidden inside the castle, in the most awkward of spots. Doors turned out to not be doors at all, and staircases moved everywhere at random times. At one point, Molly heard Ava, who was passing by on the way to her first class, muttering about a murder mat - _she must've been going crazy from the stress,_ Molly thought.

Second was the classes.

History of Magic - even for Molly - turned out to be a bit of a bore, with lots of events referred to as if the knowledge of them was commonplace. Harry and Ron, just down the table from where Molly was sitting, were furrowing their eyebrows the entire time, trying to make sense of Professor Binns's lecture.

After lunch, the ghost that Harry had been sitting across from at the Sorting - Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, although everyone called him Nearly Headless Nick because of the way he died - directed her to Charms class with Professor Flitwick. He was short and easily excitable - he fell off his podium when he saw Harry in his classroom.

Defense Against the Dark Arts had excited Molly, but it ended up not being worth the trouble. Professor Quirrell, who ran the class, was a very nervous man, his voice quivering whenever he spoke. The classroom smelled like an Italian restaurant Molly had been to back home - the stench of garlic hung in the air. There was another smell, though - Molly couldn't identify it, but it came from the turban that Quirrell wore everywhere. The smell was suspicious, especially when Molly could've sworn she heard the turban sneeze.

By that time, the day was practically done, and Molly was surprised at how few classes she'd had. Back at home, at the school she'd gone to with Caitlyn, they'd had at least five or six classes a day - and they learned normal things, like math and science and reading, not Charms and History of Magic.

The next day didn't have any double periods for the Gryffindors, so there were four classes instead of three. Today was Molly's first Herbology class, in which a kind woman named Professor Sprout taught them about all different sorts of magical plants outside the castle in a nearby greenhouse.

It was also Molly's first day of Transfiguration, with Professor McGonagall. This class was one she was really looking forward to - McGonagall seemed like a really cool person, and she was the Head of Gryffindor.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she began her first lecture. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Molly gulped - but then again, whenever the entire class had been warned about something at her old school, even if it didn't apply to her, she always gulped a bit.

Professor McGonagall took out her wand and pointed it at her desk. A small flick, and suddenly a pig was in its place.

"Whoa," Molly said. She jumped out of her seat to go and say hi to the pig, but another flick from the professor's wand and the pig was a desk again.

Molly's eyes darted to Professor McGonagall, who glared at her.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly as she slunk back to her seat. Mackenzie giggled, and Molly elbowed her.

The next day was Molly's first astronomy class, in which she studied the movement of stars and planets. It seemed more like _astrology_ to her, however, as much of the class was focused on how the planets' movements related to the future. The professor explained that the class was an introduction to Divination, should a student choose to take it (Madison explained to Molly during a break that Divination was the art of telling the future).

Thursday included nothing new, but Friday morning, Mackenzie announced to the first years that it was time for their first Potions class. Molly was excited but also a little nervous - she'd heard good things about Snape from Jonah and Ava, but then again, they were in Slytherin, and Snape was their Head of House. Percy had said that Snape wasn't the best at the Feast on Day 1 - so which one was right?

"Where's the Potions classroom?" Molly asked Percy as the door opened to the rest of Hogwarts.

"Downstairs, in the dungeons," he said. "I have a free period - I'll show you."

"Thanks," Molly said as the two left the Common Room.

When she got to the dungeons, an intense wind blew over her. The dungeon that the class was in was dark, damp, and freezing cold. Zoë, who was in the class with her, was muttering about it being colder than a dementor in December. Molly didn't understand what that meant, but she didn't think it was a good thing.

In the front of the room stood the same tall man with a greasy head of black hair that Molly had seen at the Great Hall at the very beginning of the year - Professor Snape. He went through the roll call, and everyone seemed to be there. His stern face softened a bit at Molly's last name, but when he got to Harry's name, he paused and said, "Ah, yes. Harry Potter. Our new - _celebrity_."

He looked as if he wanted to say something a little more bitter than _celebrity._

After he finished the roll call, he put down the piece of parchment he was holding and looked up at the class.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he said. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins. I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses, bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death...at least, if you aren't the baffling dunderheads I always have to teach."

Molly raised her hand.

"No questions right now, please," Snape said. "Potter!"

Harry sat up as straightly as he could.

"What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Hermione raised her hand rapidly, as well as Zoë, Ava, Jonah, and Mackenzie.

"I don't know, sir," Harry answered, his voice quivering.

Snape sneered.

"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything," he said. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?

The hands of the boy and girls reached even higher.

"I don't know, sir," Harry said again.

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

Molly was starting to _really_ not like Snape.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Jonah, Mackenzie, Zoë, and Ava raised their hands even higher; Hermione stood up to stretch her hand even farther.

"I don't know," Harry said. "But I think there are plenty other kids in here who do."

Molly smiled at Harry's comeback, and she caught Seamus winking at him. Snape, however, was (surprise, surprise!) not happy.

"Sit down," he said, looking in Hermione's direction, and she sat down immediately.

"For your information, Potter," Snape said, hatred clouding his voice, "asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons."

Molly caught Jonah glancing at Ron with a foul look.

"And as for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." He paused and looked around the classroom. "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

Molly groped for her quill pen and her ink jar, and she wrote down the information about monkshood, wolfsbane, aconite, bezoars, asphodel, and the crow from _Sofia the First._

After the class was finished taking notes, Snape cleared his throat and said, "Today we will be learning a potion for curing boils. Please take out _Magical Drafts and Potions_ and turn to page 25."

People rummaged for the book and took it out, opening it up to the correct page.

"Please follow the instructions in the book. You have two hours. Find a partner and begin." Snape spoke simply, using the bare minimum of words to get across his point without stumbling.

Hermione scanned the room, then saw Molly and rushed over. "Do you want to work together?" she asked.

"Sure!" Molly said.

Molly looked at Step 1 in the book: "Add six snake fangs to the mortar."

"Mortar…" Molly mumbled to herself. Suddenly, she remembered the shelf of mortars and pestles in the back of the room, and she, along with the other first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins, raced to the shelf. She grabbed a marble one and brought it back to her table, grabbing snake fangs from Professor Snape's desk.

The fangs went into the mortar, and Molly brought down the pestle, gently but firmly. After a bit of working, the fangs had been replaced by a white powder.

"Step 2," Hermione read out loud. "Crush into a...oh, already did that. Step 3: Add four measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron."

Next to Molly's desk, the two girls lit a small fire and put their cauldron on top. One measure went in, then another, then another, then finally one more. Out of the corner of her eye, Molly noticed Snape walking around to each table, checking up on the students.

"Step 4: Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds - oh, it's already been ten seconds," Molly said to herself and Hermione. "Step 5: Wave your wand."

She grabbed the short elm wand from her pocket and pointed it at the cauldron with a flourish. A white spark, almost like lightning, flew into the cauldron, and the dry mixture started to bubble, as if it was wet.

"Step 6," Hermione read. "Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes."

 _Okay,_ Molly thought. _So what do I do for 33-45 minutes?_

That was an easy question for Molly to answer for herself - sing. She took a deep breath, thinking about what song to sing.

Finally, Molly decided. She hummed the opening of the song and then started singing.

" _Everything is great,_ " she sang. " _Everything is grand. I've got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand. Everything it's perfect - it's falling into place. I can't seem to wipe this smile of my face. Life's a happy song when there's someone by your side to sing along._ "

"Miss Evans!" Professor Snape called out.

"Yes, Professor?" she asked.

"Why are you singing?"

"Because I don't have anything to do for 33-45 minutes," she replied.

"Why don't you and Miss Granger help Mister Longbottom?" he said. "He seems to be having a bit of trouble."

He gestured to Neville, who was still trying to crush his snake fangs.

"Of course, sir," she said as she and Hermione skipped over to Neville's table.

"Need some help?" she said.

Neville sighed with relief. "Yes," he said simply.

"Here," Hermione said, holding the hand he was holding the pestle in. "Try doing it with a little more force."

"Imagine the fangs are Bellatrix!" Jonah called from across the room.

Neville cringed, but the look on his face was quickly replaced with one of determination. He brought down the pestle with the perfect amount of force, and after a few crushes, the fangs had been obliterated.

"Thanks," he said, breathing heavily.

"You're welcome," Molly said. "Now put it in the cauldron."

He measured out the snake fang dust ( _it almost smelled like Cheerio dust,_ Molly thought) and poured it into the cauldron, lighting a fire of his own for heating. After about ten seconds, he pointed his wand at the cauldron, and the spark from it flew into the cauldron.

She smiled. "Now we're in the same boat."

She wandered back to her desk, singing " _If I had a boat, I'd row it 'cross the ocean, and if I had a pony, I'd ride him on my boat._ " For a split second, she wondered who that _Bellatrix_ person that Jonah had mentioned was, but she also knew that if she asked him, he'd probably tell her that she'd figure it out eventually, and she didn't want that to happen in front of Malfoy and Snape.

Time seemed to halt as Molly and Hermione waited, keeping their eyes firmly on the potion. Ten minutes passed in her head, then twenty, then thirty...Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, thirty-three minutes had passed. Molly looked back at the textbook.

"Step 7: Add four horned slugs to the cauldron."

She rushed to Professor Snape's desk and grabbed four slugs from it.

"Miss Evans, will you please stop yourself from running?" Snape called.

"Sorry!" she called back as she dropped the slugs in her cauldron before they slipped out of her hand. She looked back at the textbook.

"Step 8: Take the cauldron off of the fire," Hermione read.

Hermione poked the handle of the cauldron to see if it was cool. Thankfully for her finger, it was. Molly grabbed the handle and took the cauldron off the fire, making sure not to spill a drop of the mixture.

"Class?" Snape said. "Look over here."

The two girls looked in Snape's direction. He was standing next to Malfoy, who had a smug look on his face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Neville shrug and grab some porcupine quills from Snape's desk.

"Would you please look at how exquisitely Mr. Malfoy has stewed his horned slugs? Just put them in and let them sit in the mixture -"

Snape was cut off by an deafening explosion that made Molly jump. When she turned her head, she saw Neville with what was left of his cauldron. The blue remains of his potion were pooling on the floor, and Molly jumped up to avoid getting touched by it. When she looked at Neville, he was covered in red boils from the potion drenching him.

"Idiot boy!" Snape said, waving his wand. Instantaneously, the pools of potion disappeared. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills _before_ taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville didn't answer as Seamus, who was working nearby and whose cauldron had also been wrecked, brought Neville up to the hospital wing.

"You - Potter."

Snape turned to Harry.

"Why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

Harry opened his mouth, but something caused him to stop. After a few seconds, the class had diverted their attention back to their own potions. Molly went up to Snape's desk and grabbed two sharp, brown porcupine quills, plopping them into the potion.

The potion started to bubble, but it didn't explode, to Molly's relief. She looked back at the potion book.

"Step 10," she read out loud. "Stir five times, clockwise."

She grabbed a long, wooden spoon from her desk and placed it in the potion, around where the number twelve would be on a clock. Carefully, she created a circle in the cauldron, and another, and another, and two more. Hermione looked at the last step.

"Step 11: Wave your wand to complete the potion."

She grabbed her wand and did the same flourishing movement Molly had done earlier. Suddenly, a pink puff of smoke erupted from the cauldron. The liquid inside turned a pretty pale blue.

"Professor Snape?" Molly called. "We're done."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading this chapter! Here are Chapter 6's fun facts:**

 **1) The murder mat is not a murder mat - it's Molly mishearing Ava wishing she had a copy of the _Marauder's Map_.**

 **2) In my science class right now, we're learning about chemical reactions, and almost the entire time, I felt like I was in a Potions class. (So this chapter, which I wrote earlier, is very close to my heart right now.)**

 **3) I _adore_ to sing - the songs in this chapter that Molly sings are "Life's a Happy Song" from _The Muppets_ (one of my favorite songs to sing whenever I'm about to do something really super cool) and "If I Had a Boat" by Lyle Lovett. (Man, my references can get obscure.)**

 **4) The inspiration for Jonah let me know while I was in the process of writing this chapter that he wanted to absolutely hate Roonil Wazlib (sorry, Ron Weasley). Hence, Jonah looking at Ron "with a foul look" after Snape talks about a bezoar.**

 **5) Another AVPM reference in the form of Molly thinking she heard Quirrell's turban sneeze.**

 **6) I'd totally go to say hi to the pig.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	7. An Angry Mudblood

**Hi everyone! This chapter (so far) was one of my favorite to write, so I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7:**_

 _ **An Angry Mudblood**_

"' _I bet I'm in Hufflepuff,' said Harry gloomily.  
_ ' _Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,' said Hagrid darkly. 'There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.'"_

Jonah was having the time of his life.

He had read the Harry Potter books so much that it wasn't even funny. Once, he had read the entire series in four days. Now, he was getting to live the life he had always wanted to live - the life of a Hogwarts student.

The only problem was his House.

Jonah wouldn't deny that he was a Slytherin - he was shrewd, ambitious, and an all-around cunning guy. But one of the bad things about being a Slytherin was that he had to share a house with Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle and all the other people who would hopefully never be tolerated back where he came from.

His saving grace was being in Ava and Zoë's House. They were still ambitious and clever - and Ava loved snakes - but they didn't have any Muggleborn prejudice. Almost every day, he'd hear Malfoy sneer about having Mudbloods in his House, or Marcus Flint talking about how twisted it was that Hermione Granger, a Mudblood, was one of the smartest girls in the school when she probably stole her magic from someone - but Ava and Zoë never talked like that.

It came to a head in late October, just before Halloween, when Jonah walked up to the Slytherin door, down in the dungeons, and tried to get in.

" _Callidus,_ " Jonah said.

Nothing. The door, for some reason, didn't respond.

" _Callidus,_ " he repeated.

Still nothing.

"I said _Callidus_!" Jonah said.

Still, nothing worked.

Jonah fished in his pocket for a paper clip and found one. _Thank goodness,_ he thought. He took it out and bent it into a straight line. He walked up to the door and found a small hole in the carving of a snake on the door.

Carefully, the paper clip line went into the hole, and Jonah fiddled with it, trying to pick the lock. When he felt that it _had_ to be undone by now, he pushed at the door.

Nothing happened.

 _Of course,_ Jonah thought too late. _It's magic._

Now there was only one thing left to do. Jonah grabbed a hammer from inside his robe and ran at the door.

"Take this, magic!" he shouted as he brought the hammer down on the snake. The rock caved in, and Jonah could see the Slytherin fireplace.

"Thank goodness," he said, walking towards the door - but just before he could crawl through, the rock bounced back, almost hitting him in the face.

Jonah rolled his eyes, raising the hammer to see if another hit would break the magic. He started to bring it down -

"Oh, don't bother," a proper voice said behind Jonah. He turned around to see that it was Malfoy.

"Put that Muggle thing away," he said, and Jonah obliged. "Why the _enfer_ do you have a hammer with you?"

"Why the _enfer_ not?" Jonah replied.

"Here, I'll do it," Malfoy said, walking towards the door. "It's obviously _Ambitiose,_ you idiot Mudblood."

The door opened and Malfoy walked in, leaving Jonah with a thunderstruck look.

"By the way," Malfoy said, "you really don't need a hammer with you."

He moved his hand to close the door, but Jonah stopped him.

"I...am not...a _Mudblood_ ," Jonah said, panting. "I…am a Muggleborn...and proud of it."

He let go of the door for dramatic emphasis.

"Besides, it's my lucky hammer, and it's come in handy before," he said snarkily.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and walked inside.

"Flint?" he called. "Get in here."

Marcus's large sixth-year feet thumped down the stairs in the common room as Jonah walked in.

"Shoot," Jonah muttered under his breath. Whenever Marcus showed up, things were never sunshine and rainbows.

Finally, Marcus came into view as he finished his walk down the stairs. His teeth were crooked - like usual - his hair a mess - like usual - and his attire covered in greens and golds - like usual.

"What are you gonna do?" Jonah said. "I'm not scared of you or anything like that."

"I know," Flint said, his proper voice not matching his disheveled body.

"So do I," Malfoy said. "But, Marcus, this traitor is proud of being a - as he calls himself - _Muggleborn._ "

He shivered when saying the word, as if not saying the wizard curse would poison him.

"So why don't we show this idiot Mudblood how we do things around here?"

That was it. Jonah drew his wand and pointed it at Draco.

"Don't...call...me... _Mudblood,_ " he said. "I am more than just a toy for you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jonah saw Marcus roll his eyes and draw his own wand.

"Perfect, Marcus," Malfoy said. Jonah turned to look at Marcus head-on - until he suddenly heard Marcus's proper voice shout:

" _Imperio!_ "

* * *

Jonah couldn't see. It was as if all his senses had gone out, like the filament of a lightbulb breaking down. He couldn't hear a thing, or feel the air that he knew must be around him.

Of course he knew what was going on - he had read _Goblet of Fire_ about a zillion times - _it's a technical term,_ Jonah thought in the internal monologue he was trapped in. But for some odd reason, he didn't care.

Then, out of the blue, he heard something - Marcus's proper voice, yelling at him.

 _Dance for me, you idiot! Sing!_ it said. _Sing "I'm a Mudblood, I'm a Mudblood, a filthy little Mudblood!"_

His voice had changed from prim, proper, Percy Weasley-esque tones to sneering, snivelling, Agatha Trunchbull-esque tones.

 _Come on, do it, you butthead! Get up on the table and dance!_

 _No, I don't think I will,_ another little voice said - definitely not Marcus's. _Why would I do it? You never jump up on a table and call yourself a racial slur - it just makes you look like an idiot._

 _You are an idiot, though!_ Marcus's teasing voice said.

 _What's the square root of 841?_ Jonah thought, like a little conversation between him and Marcus.

 _Uhh…_ Marcus paused, and Jonah used the opportunity to grab for his wand, which he somehow knew had been put back in his pocket when he had been dazed from the spell, and point it in the direction of Marcus's voice.

It was as if the filament had been fixed. Suddenly, Jonah could see Marcus perfectly - the boy was shaking, Jonah's wand pointed directly at his chest. A draft blew through the room, one that Jonah could finally feel.

He sighed with relief and put away his wand.

"By the way, it's twenty-nine," he said.

"What?" Malfoy said, dumbstruck.

"The square root of 841 - it's twenty-nine."

"What does that have to do with the price of tea and china?" Malfoy asked.

"More than you would think, Draco," Jonah said, beginning to walk up the stairs to his dormitory.

"Get back here," Malfoy called, "you little -"

"Call me Mudblood _one more time!_ " Jonah yelled down.

Malfoy side-eyed Marcus. "He's an angry Mudblood."

"Oh, now you asked for it!" Jonah said, running back down the stairs and drawing his wand again.

" _Petrificus Totalus!_ "

Malfoy froze in place and fell to the ground. Out of the corner of his mouth, he was able to sneak out, "That's the second time that's happened to me!"

Jonah smiled and ran up the stairs to his dorm.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here's the behind-the-magic (I've always wanted to say that) fun facts for this chapter.**

 **1) The square root of 841 is actually 29.**

 **2) The hammer and "Take this, magic!" lines were actually the idea of Jonah's inspiration, who is extremely snarky (although as far as I know, he doesn't carry a hammer around with him).**

 **3) I was originally going to have Draco and Jonah curse in this chapter, but then I felt really uncomfortable (especially because the story's rated K+ for _implied_ language), so I replaced them with alternatives, like "shoot" and " _enfer._ " (Look it up - it's French.)**

 **4) One of the reasons this chapter is my favorite so far is that I was able to get a Hamilton reference and an Elf reference into two lines of dialogue. See if you can find it!**

 **5) _Ambitiose_ is Latin for _ambitious_ , and _callidus_ is Latin for _cunning_. (I was originally going to have the password have the word _Mudblood_ in it, but then realized that it was really hard to come up with a short password that put down Muggleborns.)**

 **6) And yes, I know, Hagrid's wrong. I just thought it would be a funny juxtaposition to go from "There wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin" to "Jonah was having the time of his life." Remember, part of the story is Molly overcoming her Slytherin prejudices.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	8. Mission Completion

**Hi guys! This chapter is one that Madison's inspiration has been wanting me to put up for a long time. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8:**_

 _ **Mission Completion**_

" _There was already someone there - but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.  
_ _It was Quirrell."_

Madison wanted to do something, but she didn't know what.

It had been a while since the "Troll in the dungeon" incident, and to Madison's delight, she won a bet with Stella that Quirrell would come in screaming the words instead of saying them really faintly to Dumbledore. There had also been the big Quidditch game with Gryffindor and Slytherin, and Madison had been cheering with Molly and Mackenzie for the Gryffindor team. (She didn't mind that even though they had all read the books and/or seen the movies, the Slytherins rooted for their house.)

But something weighed on her every time she saw Quirrell.

She knew why - she knew what Quirrell really was, deep down. She also knew that exposing him in public would make life a lot easier for Harry and his friends. She also knew that pictures could be taken in Hogwarts, even though other means of technology didn't work.

And she knew of one thing that might be able to expose Quirrell as the harbinger of the greatest evil since Grindelwald.

"Stella?" Madison called from her seat in the Hufflepuff common room where she was pondering her escapade.

"Be right there!" Stella called from her dorm. The sound of footsteps got louder and louder, and then Stella's cascading black hair and her robe just barely hiding her _In the Heights_ t-shirt appeared in the common room.

"What is it?" Stella asked.

Madison took a deep breath. She had always been good at diplomacy and sharing ideas, but for the first time, she was having a problem.

"Well…" she said. "I have an idea - a dangerous one, but still an idea."

"Go on, then," Stella said.

"Well, you know how Quirrell always wears that turban of his?"

"Yeah," Stella said. "Everybody knows that. He's hiding Voldemort."

Madison nodded. "Well, I heard from Molly that the Weasley twins were being really funny and bewitched some snowballs -"

"- to hit Voldemort in the face, I know," Stella said. "Your point?"

"He's going to have his turban off - it'll need to dry from the snow," Madison said. One last deep breath, and then the idea was revealed.

"I want to go to his office, get a picture of him, and reveal it to Hogwarts."

Stella's eyes widened. "You WHAT!?" she exclaimed. "That's the most dangerous thing I've ever heard of - and I've read these books!"

Madison smiled. "I'm glad you understand me. The only thing I need is a camera - and that's something I believe you have."

"No!" Stella said. "I'm not letting you go in there by yourself - or with anybody! You must have a death wish!"

"I don't have a choice," Madison said.

"Yes, you do!" Stella cried. "You have the choice to stay here, live, and let history run its course!"

"But this is Harry's good year!" Madison said. "This is the year that he discovers who he is, and he has the right to _not_ have a Dark Wizard interfere!"

Stella rolled her eyes. "Be right back," she said. " _God,_ you're tenacious."

She got out of her seat and trudged up the stairs to her dorm. A few minutes later, she came back down, holding a small, black camera.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked for what seemed like the millionth time. "This is Voldemort we're talking about."

"Positive," Madison said, her voice steely.

"Well, if you're sure," Stella said warily. Carefully, she plugged an SD card into the camera. "If it works for Colin Creevey, hopefully it works for you."

"Thanks, Stella," Madison said, taking the camera. "Let's do this. Come on, Opa."

The owl flew up from the cage Madison had started bringing everywhere with her and landed on Madison's shoulder. Squaring her shoulders, she left the room.

As soon as the door closed, Stella's lips pursed as she tried to think of an idea to protect Madison as much as possible. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head. She rushed out the Hufflepuff door.

* * *

A few minutes later, Stella was in front of the Slytherin common room, knocking vigorously on the snake carved into the front door.

"I need someone!" she yelled. "Now!"

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the door opened to reveal Draco Malfoy standing in the round hole in the wall.

"What do you want - AHHHH!"

He jumped back from the door when he saw Stella.

"If you think I'm letting you in, you little -"

" _Petrificus Totalus!"_ Stella exclaimed, and Malfoy fell to the ground for the third time. Satisfied, she walked into the room.

"Jonah? Ava? Zoë?" she called. "I need to talk to you…"

"Stella? Is that you?" Ava's voice said from upstairs.

"Yeah!" Stella called. "Can I talk to you for, like, two seconds?"

"Sure," Ava said as she ran down the Slytherin stairs. Finally, she came out from the dormitories, her hair windblown and a pretty purple dress on.

"What'd I miss?" she said.

"A lot," Stella said. She explained the situation to Ava, and after a few minutes of Ava's face alternating from cringing to smiling and back again, the story had been told.

"I'm sorry, Stella, but I can't go," Ava said. "I have a Potions essay due Friday, and I really want to get it done."

Stella's face fell.

"But Jonah probably can," Ava said. "He finished that essay days ago."

Stella smiled again. "Perfect!" she said. "If you could get him for me, that would be great."

Ava nodded. "Sounds good!" she said. "I should probably go and write that essay."

"What was it about again?" Stella asked.

"The twelve uses of dragon's blood or something like that," Ava said. "It's really interesting - there's a neat part about it in the textbook."

"Thanks," Stella said. "Gotta go!"

"Bye!" Ava said, waving as Stella left the room, hoping that Ava would get the message to Jonah, and hoping that Madison would be safe.

There was no way for her to know that she was right on the first account and wrong on the latter.

* * *

"Professor Quirrell?" Madison said, standing outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts room and trying to sound as innocent as possible. "I need to ask you something…"

"J-j-just a m-m-minute!" he stammered.

Madison rolled her eyes and turned on the camera. Quietly, she walked into the room and hid behind a desk.

Nobody was there.

Stealthily, Madison darted from desk to desk, getting closer to Quirrell's private quarters. He was probably drying off his turban from the Weasley twins' snowball attacks that very moment. Finally, after a long pause, she snuck into the room.

He was there, looking in a mirror and holding a handheld mirror to the back of his head. Madison's eyes widened - a configuration like that could only mean one thing.

Voldemort was here.

"Those blasted twins!" a raggedy voice said - it sounded nothing like Quirrell, so Madison guessed it had to be Voldemort. "My face is all wet from the snow!"

"I know, Master," said Quirrell, his voice steadier than Madison had ever heard before. "But you must keep your cover if we are to survive here."

"Yes, Quirrell, I know," Voldemort said. "But the twins are horrible! One of them has to die before this is all over."

Madison cringed.

"Yes, Master," Quirrell said. "But that is not important right now. What is important is finding a way to the Stone. Did you hear the professors talking about all the protections they had put on it?"

"Yes, Quirrell, I know," Voldemort said. "I hear everything you hear."

Quirrell turned so that Madison could see both men - well, the man and _whatever_ you wanted to call Voldemort - connected perfectly. This was her chance!

She raised her camera - and suddenly, she felt a tap on her back. Turning, she saw the face of Jonah.

"Jonah, what are you doing here?" she whispered as quietly as she could.

"Helping," he said. "Hold the camera up."

"How'd you know to help?"

"Ava told me," Jonah said. "Now do it."

Madison took a shaky breath and nodded. She held up the camera.

 _Click._ The camera took the picture, with just the slightest of noises.

Unfortunately for Madison and Jonah, it was enough. Quirrell turned to see the children, and his eyes narrowed.

"Run," Madison and Jonah said in unison.

Madison was the first to get up, Jonah quickly following. Opa started to hoot loudly, almost like an alarm.

When Madison looked back, however, she could still see Quirrell and Voldemort following them. It was easier for them, since they could move as one person, while Madison and Jonah had to run at a similar pace to stay together.

Quirrell fumbled for his wand, and by the time the children reached the other end of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he had it firmly in his hand.

" _Impedimenta!_ " he called.

Suddenly, Madison froze in place, her camera falling from her hand. She couldn't move, or look back to see how much Quirrell was gaining on them. Her eyes darted to Jonah, who was also frozen in time.

Suddenly, she heard a voice directly behind her - Quirrell's.

"You've lost now," he said. "But I can't do this by myself - if it's _my_ wand that the spell is cast on, then if it's discovered, I'm the one to blame."

By then, the two were starting to unfreeze. Jonah tried flexing his fingers to get the life back into them.

"But if it's another's wand…" Quirrell continued.

"You're not taking our wands," Madison said, finally able to look back at the professor.

"Oh, I won't have to," he said.

He raised his wand in Jonah's direction.

" _Imperio!_ " he yelled.

* * *

Jonah couldn't see. He couldn't feel a thing, or hear a sound. He was just in his own peaceful little world of darkness. Everything seemed perfect - if someone asked him to do something, he knew he could trust them.

But somewhere inside, a little voice was talking to him.

 _You've been here before,_ it said. _Resist._

Resist? What did that mean? Was it like disobeying the command of a friend? Jonah would never do that, not here.

Another voice was talking to him - strong, steady.

 _Kill,_ it said.

 _Resist,_ the other voice said.

 _If you resist, you will die,_ the steady voice said. _Kill._

Jonah didn't know how, but he could feel that someone was standing near him. He turned toward the person.

 _Yes,_ the steady voice said. _Kill._

Jonah raised his wand, which he somehow knew was still in his hand. He opened his mouth.

* * *

"No!" Madison cried. "Jonah, don't do this!"

"He has no choice," Quirrell said. "This will be fun."

Jonah took a deep breath and let it out.

" _Avada Kedavra,"_ he said calmly.

A green light burst from his wand. Madison cringed, readying herself for the impact.

But it never came.

When Madison opened her eyes, Jonah was still standing in front of her, his eyes glazed over, his wand pointing at her heart. Why was she still alive?

Then she looked down to see Opa.

"NO!" Madison said, leaning down to hold her owl. Her amber eyes were still wide open, but they were glassy. There was no denying it - Opa was dead.

She looked up at Quirrell. "How could you?" she said, her voice breaking.

"If she hadn't gotten in the way, this wouldn't be a problem," Quirrell said. "Jonah?"

* * *

Jonah heard the voice speak his name.

 _We must try again,_ it said. _Something got in the way._

Jonah nodded, tightening his grip on his wand.

 _Resist,_ the other voice said.

Why? Why resist? Why give up now when everything was perfect?

 _You've killed something that a friend loves,_ the little voice said. _Do you want everything to be ruined for your friend?_

 _Yes,_ the steadier voice said. _That's exactly what you want._

Jonah clenched his teeth as he heard the word one more time - that sweet, blissful word:

 _Kill._

* * *

Jonah's eyes had glazed over even more.

"Why are you doing this?" she said to Quirrell. "You're hurting him!"

"But it will all be over in a second for him if you don't fight," Quirrell said. "You've lost - just give up."

Madison looked at him for a second, not sure whether to do what was right or what was easy. Finally, she made her decision.

"Never," she said.

"Have it your way, then," Quirrell said, gesturing to Jonah.

" _Avada Kedavra,"_ he said again.

The green light burst from his wand, hitting Madison and blasting her across the room. Her last thought before she was overtaken by the darkness was that Quirrell would pay - eventually - for what he had done and what he was going to do.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

* * *

Jonah felt a strange sense of glee. It wasn't from him - the voice that was telling him what to do was happy. The spell must've worked this time!

 _Thank you, Jonah,_ the voice said. _Never again think about what happened - don't attempt to remember anything._

 _Remember,_ the other voice said. Why was that other voice there? It was so annoying.

 _You don't need to remember,_ the first voice said, and Jonah could already feel the thoughts leaving his brain. What was he trying to not remember in the first place?

 _Good_ , the voice said. _Now rest._

The blackness grew blacker as Jonah's legs buckled, and his body fell to the floor.

* * *

"Perfect," Quirrell said as he flicked his wand, ending the spell. "Now…"

He turned to look at Madison's body, lying across the room from him.

"Leave the boy," Voldemort said. "You've done a wonderful job, Quirrell."

"Thank you, my Lord," Quirrell said. "How should I arrange the bodies?"

"One on top of the other," Voldemort said maliciously. "Madison first, with Jonah below her, and the owl next to them."

Quirrell nodded and silently arranged the bodies in front of the classroom door.

"There we go," Quirrell said. He sighed. "Now I just need to finish grading the tests I gave out today."

"Oh, just give them all B minuses and be done with it," Voldemort said as Quirrell walked back into his office. This was definitely a good day.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are some fun facts about this chapter:**

 **1) When Madison's inspiration first asked me if she could be in the story, she said - and I believe these were her exact words - "I want to be in the story, and I want my character to die." I originally disagreed, but eventually gave in.**

 **2) Jonah's inspiration approached me a few days later and said, "I want my character to kill someone." (He had already been put in the story.) I originally disagreed, but then I remembered Madison - and wrote this scene.**

 **3) When I sent the chapter to Stella's inspiration, I got this reply:**

 _ **I JUST READ IT**_

 _ **OH SNAP**_

 ** _$HIT WENT DOWN_**

 ** _OOOOOOOH_**

 **So I think she liked it. (And yes, she self-censored the curse word.)**

 **4) Another AVPM reference at the end of the chapter! (I also put in a Hamilton reference with Ava's entrance.)**

 **5) The inspiration for Opa (yes, Opa has an inspiration) had her brother read this chapter (and he just finished the fourth book, so he was a little confused when Madison cringed at Voldemort's statement - Opa's inspiration had to scroll really quickly). When Opa...uh, _died_ , he replied with:**

 **"NOOOOO!"**

 **When Madison died, he (and she) responded with:**

 **"Oh, cool Magic Treehouse reference."**

 **"Did you steal my Magic Treehouse books?"**

 **"...Maybe..."**

 **6) The big foreshadowing with Madison's wand? Her wand is made of cypress wood - and as Pottermore says,**

 **"** **The great medieval wandmaker, Geraint Ollivander, wrote that he was always honoured to match a cypress wand, for he knew he was meeting a witch or wizard who would die a heroic death."**

 **Also, all of the different parts of her wand are from characters in the books who are killed.**

 **7) Finally, the chapter title is based on Leo's favorite saying from _Little Einsteins._ (Told you my references can get obscure.)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	9. A Suffering Too Terrible to Name

**Hi everybody! Here's the next chapter in the story. I hope you enjoy! (Just a warning - this is the first true _sad_ chapter in the story. There are plenty more coming, though.)  
**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 9**_

 _ **A Suffering Too Terrible to Name**_

 _"He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in the cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from."_

"Where's Madison?" Molly asked Mackenzie at lunch the next day. It was a Saturday, so there weren't any classes, but lunch was still scheduled for the weekends, and there weren't any Quidditch games or anything to pass the time. It didn't seem that anything out of the ordinary had happened yesterday, other than the Weasley twins' pranks - it had been Friday the Thirteenth, so Molly had been on the lookout.

"I don't know," Mackenzie said. "I haven't seen her all day."

"Well, she has to be around here somewhere," Molly said. She scanned the Hufflepuff table, but saw nothing. The only person she recognized was Stella, who was similarly looking for Madison.

Suddenly, she heard a shriek from the back of the room. The entire group of children turned to see Beatrix, in her Ravenclaw robes, with a pained look on her face.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she said, running towards the teachers' table. "I was just in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room - needed help from Professor Quirrell for something and hadn't seen him here yet - and I saw something you won't believe!"

"What is it, my dear?" Dumbledore said.

Her voice shaking, Beatrix answered.

"It's Madison," she said quietly. "She's dead."

Molly gasped, and the world seemed to slow down. When was the last time she had seen Madison? Had it been at the Quidditch game, when they had cheered on Harry and the Gryffindors together? Had it been during Friday's Herbology class, when Molly had clapped for her when she had answered a question about Devil's Snare perfectly? Had it just been passing her by in the hallways - not even stopping to say hello?

Molly jumped out of her seat and ran out of the Great Hall. The corridors blurred around her as she ran towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Finally, she made it to the door and pushed it open.

There was Madison, pale as snow, lying lifelessly on top of Jonah, who was also pale but not to the extent of Madison. Her eyes were open, but glassy. Opa laid next to them, her amber eyes staring at the ceiling without picking up the slightest detail.

Beatrix was right. Molly had hardly known Madison and had wanted to get to know her better, but now she was lying on the floor of the classroom.

Dead.

Tears welled up in Molly's eyes, and her legs buckled, her body falling to the ground next to Madison's. She heard footsteps behind her, but she didn't care. All that she could think about was her friend - beautiful, kind, smart, gone.

"Madison…" she heard a voice behind her say. Stella's.

The girl knelt by Molly and put her arm around her body. Her hand shook, and Molly could tell that she was crying, too.

"She was just here...I told her not to do that…if I hadn't given her the camera, none of this would've happened…why she went and did that, I'll never understand..."

Molly didn't know what Stella meant, but it was still heartbreaking to hear. The two girls hugged each other and cried together as teachers and students filed in to see the aftermath.

Suddenly, Molly heard a soft gasp from below her. Was she wrong? Was Madison actually alive?

She looked down, not to see Madison miraculously reawaken to cheers and happy tears, but to see Jonah opening his eyes in bewilderment.

"What's going on?" he said, his voice hoarse. "Why are you two crying?"

He tried to sit up before feeling the weight of Madison's body on him. Looking to see her, he screamed and scurried away from her.

"What happened?" he said, a crack in his voice.

"She's…" Molly couldn't bring herself to say the word.

"She's dead," Professor Dumbledore said from behind the trio of children.

"But...how?" Jonah asked.

"I don't know," Dumbledore said. Stella's eyes scanned the room, looking for someone.

"Weren't you there?" Molly asked Jonah.

"I...don't remember…" he said, and Molly could tell he was being honest.

"Let me see your wand," Dumbledore said. Jonah pulled his wand out of his pocket and gave it to the Headmaster, who set it down on a table and touched it with his wand.

" _Prior Incantato_ ," Dumbledore said.

Suddenly, a green light spurted out of Jonah's wand, almost hitting Dumbledore in the chest. It flew into the wall and left a scorch mark.

Molly's eyes followed the path of the green light, and then darted upwards. They fell upon Harry, who was standing outside and was staring at the scorch mark on the wall.

"I - I know that spell," he said. "I've never performed it, but I've seen it before."

Dumbledore looked at Harry and sighed. "Of course you've seen it. That's the Killing Curse - it causes instant death to anyone who gets in the way. And it's the last spell that was cast from this wand."

He turned to Jonah.

"Do you remember casting this spell?" he asked.

Jonah shook his head.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Dumbledore asked.

"Uh...I remember Ava telling me about a plan that Madison had, then I went down here to help her. I remember tapping her on the shoulder...and then, not much," Jonah admitted.

"Interesting," Dumbledore mused. "I don't know what happened, but I know this much: Jonah, you are on probation."

Jonah let out what seemed to Molly like a relieved sigh - and Molly was surprised, because it sure looked to her like Jonah was in serious trouble. She remembered what Hermione had told Ron and Harry back in October, just before the troll in the dungeon incident: "I'm leaving before any of you come up with another plan to get us all killed - or worse, expelled." If Jonah could potentially face expulsion, what would happen to him?

"Well, back to lunch!" Dumbledore said to the gathering of children who were peering into the crime scene. "You're probably getting pretty hungry!"

Molly wiped the tracks of tears that ran down her cheeks off of her face and began to run back to her seat, trying not to think about Madison or the Killing Curse or what Stella said. But before she left the room, she noticed a little black box lying on the ground, near Madison's body. A camera.

Molly walked over to the camera, picked it up, and examined it. It didn't look half bad - sure, the lens had a small crack running through it, but nothing that couldn't be replaced over winter vacation, which Molly was planning on taking.

Camera in hand, Molly ran out of the room.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's fun facts:**

 **1) Stella's tearful speech over Madison's body is inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda's verse in "Alabanza" from _In the Heights._**

 **2) The chapter title is based on a line in "It's Quiet Uptown."**

 **3) When I was trying to figure out when Madison was going to die, her inspiration suggested looking up when Friday the 13th was in 1991/1992 - and thankfully for me, it was in December, so I could pair it with the twins' snowball prank.**

 **4) One of the reasons that Madison didn't have as much characterization is because her inspiration kept on begging me to put up her death chapter so that she could see what people thought. (Imagine her surprise when there ended up being not a single review!)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	10. Leaving and Saying Goodbye

**Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter in the story - I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 10:**_

 _ **Leaving and Saying Goodbye**_

" _Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork - bread, English muffins, marshmallows - and plotting ways of getting Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work."_

"What are you going to do over break?" Mackenzie asked Molly as they packed their trunks upstairs.

"I don't know - I might go see that new Disney movie that came out in November - you know, Big Hero 6," Molly said. "What about you?"

"Probably fly down to London - the _actual_ London - and visit my family," Mackenzie said. "What about you?"

Molly waited a second. "You already asked me that."

"Oh!" Mackenzie realized. "Sorry!"

The two girls laughed for a second and continued packing, Molly still not knowing where she wanted to go. Suddenly, she remembered something.

"Sorry, Mackenzie, I gotta go," she said, dropping her half-packed trunk on her bed. "I need to tell Hermione something!"

Molly raced down the stairs and into the common room, where Hermione was talking with Harry and Ron. (Molly was really glad they had become friends.)

"Hermione!" Molly said, out of breath.

"Molly!" Hermione said, turning suddenly. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to tell you something you should do over break," Molly said. "Other than whatever you're talking about now."

"What is it?" Hermione said.

Molly leaned in, as if telling Hermione a secret. "I want you to go see Beauty and the Beast - it came out about a month ago."

"What's Beauty and the Beast?" Hermione asked.

"It's an incredible movie, with songs and dancing and magic and true love," Molly said - Beauty and the Beast had always been one of her favorites, and she had a feeling Hermione would like the bookish Belle.

"Cool!" Hermione said. "I'll have to check it out - you know, in between looking up information about Nic -"

She stopped suddenly.

"Nic? Who's that?" Molly asked. "I don't think there's anyone in the school named Nic."

Hermione pursed her lips, as if trying to keep a secret from bursting out of them.

"You can tell me," Molly said. "I can probably look it up when I get home, anyway."

Hermione sighed.

"Alright, I'll tell you," she said. "I'm talking about Nicolas Flamel."

Molly nodded. "Ah," she said, trying to sound like a little-girl version of Dumbledore. "Nicolas Flamel." She waited a second. "Who's Nicolas Flamel?"

"He's this...person," Hermione explained the best she could, "that Hagrid mentioned. See, we're trying to figure out what Snape's after - we know there's something with Fluffy, in the third floor corridor."

"Fluffy?" Molly asked.

"A three-headed dog - nearly bit my head off," Ron interjected.

Molly giggled. "And his name's _Fluffy_? Sounds a bit tame, if you ask me."

"I know," Harry said. "It's what Hagrid said his name was."

Molly nodded.

"Well, I'll look it up when I get home," Molly said. "Have a good break!"

"You too!" Hermione said, waving at Molly as she went upstairs.

When Molly got back to her room, it looked undisturbed, except for the fact that Mackenzie and her trunk were gone. _Makes sense,_ Molly thought. _She's probably headed out already._

As she walked over to her trunk to continue packing, she suddenly felt a small metal something hit her foot, and her body fell over her feet, Molly stretching her arms out to break her fall and ending up in the shape of a push-up.

"Okay," Molly said. "Peeves, you're going to be in for it -"

Her voice stopped short when she realized what her foot had hit.

A cage. With Molly's beautiful white owl in it.

Her owl - that she had never named.

Molly looked at the owl, trying to think of something to name her. Stella had named her cat Usnavi, Beatrix had named her owl Eclipse - but Molly had never figured out a name. It was weird - while Molly loved to sing and create songs and stories, she was not creative at all with names.

Then it came to her.

She knew exactly what she needed to name her owl - that is, if the owl was a girl like she thought.

Molly knelt down and looked the owl in the eye.

"Hey, there," she said. "Are you a girl?"

The owl didn't move, but Molly could've sworn it winked at her. She took that to mean, _Yeah, duh._

"Hey there, Madison."

* * *

It was December 21st - the day that Molly was going to leave for break. She said goodbye to Harry, Ron, and a few other Gryffindors before heading to the Great Hall to say goodbye to the other students.

"Bye, Stella," she said, giving her friend a hug. Stella had decided to stay over break and help Professor Sprout clean up the greenhouse.

"Bye, Molly," she said. "Tell me how Big Hero 6 is."

"I will," Molly said, giggling for the first time in what felt like forever.

She walked over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Bye, Beatrix," she said. Beatrix was staying to do some research in the school library.

"Bye," Beatrix said. "Have a good break."

"You, too," Molly said.

Going over the names of her friends in her head, she thought she had said goodbye to everyone - but then she glanced at the Slytherin table. Ava and Zoë were leaving for break - but there was one person who wanted to leave, but had a little something holding him back.

She walked over and sat down.

"Hey, Jonah," she said.

"Hey," he said, not looking up from his Rubik's Cube.

They sat in silence for a bit. Then Jonah cleared his throat.

"Hey - uh...I'm sorry about Madison."

Molly nodded. "Do you still not remember anything?"

He shook his head. "I don't know what happened - I wouldn't, you know, _kill_ somebody if I wasn't being made to…well, _probably_ not..."

His voice trailed off as his face lit up.

"That's it," he said.

"What?" Molly asked.

"I _was_ being made to kill her!" he said. "I still can't remember what happened in Quirrell's room, but I remember what Ava said - Madison was planning to expose him!"

"Expose him as who?" Molly asked.

Jonah opened his mouth to tell her, but then stopped. "Never mind," he said. "You haven't read the books."

"You can tell me," she said. "Just make it vague enough that I wouldn't completely understand."

Jonah took a deep breath. "Well...uh, there's this...wizard living with Quirrell - a Dark wizard. And he's kinda... _influencing_ what Quirrell's doing. Sorry - this all sounds really weird…"

"No, go on," Molly said. "What does that have to do with you and Madison?"

"Everything," he said. "I'll bet you ten bucks that the Dark wizard living with Quirrell influenced him to cast a spell on me that controls my every move - and using me as a scapegoat, he killed Madison."

"That _has_ to be it!" Molly said. "Does Dumbledore know about the wizard living with Quirrell?"

Jonah's shoulders slumped. "No, he doesn't," he said. "And Dumbledore won't believe me without proof - and I still can't remember what happened in the classroom."

"That's too bad," Molly said. "Wait - I just remembered something."

She took the camera out of her pocket, where she had been keeping it.

"I think you need this more than I do," she said, giving it to Jonah.

"What is it?" he said.

"It's a camera," Molly explained, "that I found in Quirrell's room last Saturday. Maybe there's some sort of proof there."

Jonah smiled. "Thanks," he said. "Have a good break."

Molly gave him a hug. "You, too," she said.

She stood up and walked away. Just before leaving the hall, she turned to him one more time to wave goodbye. He didn't look up, his focus on his Rubik's Cube.

Molly smiled and walked out the door.

Outside, in the courtyard, were the kids going back to 2014, for however long it would last - Mackenzie, Ava, and Zoë. They were standing together and chatting, but when Mackenzie saw Molly, she jumped up and waved her over.

"Come on, Molly!" she said. "It's almost time to go!"

"Coming!" Molly said, running over to join the three girls.

They locked hands.

"Ready?" Ava said to Molly.

Molly nodded. "Ready," she said.

She looked up to see clouds - what looked like an impending thunderstorm.

"Here we go," she said.

And then the world shook as the rain began to pour. Molly closed her eyes, and the shaking stopped.

When she opened them, the four were back in London - well, the fake London at Universal Studios. Other than the tourists now wearing Minion Christmas hats, it was as if nothing had changed.

"Now what?" Zoë said.

"I have an idea," Molly said. She put her hand in her pocket - and out came her mother's phone.

"Mom told me a long time ago that whenever she gives me her phone for an extended period of time, it's only for emergencies," Molly said. "This is definitely an emergency."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are the fun facts about this chapter:**

 **1) The chapter title is a reference to a song called "Leaving and Saying Goodbye," which is one of my favorite country songs.**

 **2) There are a ton of Disney references throughout the chapter - the Big Hero 6 conversation at the beginning, Molly recommending Beauty and the Beast for Hermione, the Enchanted reference at the end...**

 **3) That camera that Molly hands Jonah is going to be very important in the next few chapters...**

 **4) When I was writing Jonah's explanation for his killing Madison and his generalization of Voldemort and Quirrell's relationship, it was sounding a little weird to me - so I had Jonah acknowledge that.**

 **5) I thought it would be a neat little detail that the tourists in Universal were wearing Minion Christmas hats.**

 **6) For a while after I wrote this chapter, Opa's inspiration, Madison's inspiration, and Stella's inspiration were on my case about my owl being left in my room. So I just want to make it clear: MY OWL WAS STILL FED AND CLEANED AND TAKEN CARE OF! I WASN'T BEING A JERK TO HER! OPA, MADISON, STELLA, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, THERE YOU GO!**

 **Sorry.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing! (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	11. Help From Above

**Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter in the story - please enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 11:**_

 _ **Help From Above**_

" _What looked like a fat little monk was saying: 'Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -'  
_ ' _My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost…'"_

The Hufflepuff common room was miserable over Christmas break, just like it had been ever since that dreadful Saturday. As happy as Stella tried to be, it seemed as though nothing would cheer up anyone in the House. And she tried everything - playing pranks on some of the boys, making friends with a third-year named Cedric Diggory (knowing what would happen later on but never giving away the kids' secret), and singing all of _In the Heights_ \- in order, all at once - but nothing worked. The pranks just made the boys more miserable, seeing Cedric reminded Stella of Madison's fate, and if every song in _In the Heights_ was to be sung, "Alabanza" had to happen sometime.

On Christmas Day, Stella was sitting in the common room, rereading one of the Land of Stories books, when another kid came into the room and sat down next to her - _Ernie Macmillan,_ she thought.

"How you doin'?" she asked, not looking up from her book.

He shrugged. "It's been a tough week or so."

She nodded, going back to her book. After a few seconds, she looked up.

"How do they do it?" she asked.

"Who?" Ernie responded.

"All the teachers," she said. "We've become miserable, yet they just keep on going."

Ernie nodded. "And the kids who left school for the winter - they're fine."

"But poor Jonah," Stella said. "He's stuck in his common room for the whole break."

"Well, I wouldn't say _poor_ Jonah," Ernie replied, rolling his eyes. "He was the one who -"

"Don't say it!" Stella cried, her voice rising. Ernie jumped in his chair.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "It's just that...well, after Madison..uh... _died_ , I wouldn't have thought that _you_ would be defending the boy who -"

"It wasn't him," Stella said. "He _never_ would've cast that spell of his own accord - this is all my fault...if I just hadn't told Ava to send him…"

"How do you know?"

The question hit Stella like a brick. How could Ernie not trust Jonah? It was obvious that he was being honest to Dumbledore - he wouldn't lie if he was already in trouble.

Finally, she made up her mind on how to put it - and in true Stella fashion, it was a reference.

"He was being truthful," Stella said. "Dumbledore trusts him, and if I can't trust Dumbledore, I can't trust anyone."

Ernie nodded.

"It's almost time for lunch," he said.

Stella stood up. "Great. Food always helps."

She and Ernie giggled as they walked out of the common room.

"Usnavi, come on," she said as she began to walk out. Usually, now would be the time she would hear the pitter-patter of footsteps as Usnavi joined her on her way to lunch.

She couldn't hear them.

"Usnavi?" she said, looking back behind her.

He wasn't there.

"USNAVI!" she cried. "NOT AGAIN - THIS ALREADY HAPPENED!"

"Oh, yeah - I'd forgotten about the train," Ernie said. "Who was in here last - before me?"

Stella pursed her lips as she thought. "I think it was a Slytherin - IT'S DRACO!"

She sprinted away from the common room door, running as fast as she could towards the Slytherin dorms. After what felt like only a few seconds, she was at the front.

Sure enough, Draco was climbing inside, Usnavi asleep in his arms.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH HIM, YOU MONSTER?" she screamed as she grabbed Usnavi's unconscious body and attempted to tug it away from Draco.

He had an extremely good grip.

"UNHAND HIM AT ONCE, YOU PETULANT PRICK!" she yelled, tugging again, trying to pry his fingers off of Usnavi's fur. By now, Usnavi had woken up and yawned, unimpressed with the drama that was unfolding.

"I'm not taking him forever," Draco said, his voice strained from the effort to keep Usnavi in his grip. "Just for a little bit - to keep you from taking him for granted -"

"WELL, YOU SURE AREN'T!" she screamed. "YOU'RE JUST TAKING HIM! PERIOD! NOTHING ELSE TO SAY!"

Suddenly, Draco stopped moving. Something above him was distracting him. Something - on his head - not that Stella could figure out exactly what it was.

Mainly because whatever it was that was distracting him was invisible.

"Get off me," he said calmly, but with a stern edge.

Pause.

"I said, get off me!" he said again, his voice raising.

Pause.

"GET OFF ME, YOU JITTERY JERK!" he screamed, putting his hands up to his head and messing up his hair. "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME BE?"

As he put his hands up, Usnavi fell, and Stella grabbed desperately to stop him from hitting the ground. She looked up to see Draco, his arms flailing, his body jerkily dancing, almost like he was Agatha Trunchbull and had just discovered a newt on his body.

She giggled, then punched him in the face. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

She smiled. "That's what you get when you go around stealing from others. Get used to it - there'll be plenty more doing that in the future."

She skipped away - and almost ran right into Ernie.

"What happened?" he asked.

"He had Usnavi," she said, panting. "I got him back - but only because of an invisible...uh, _something_ distracting him."

"What was it?" Ernie asked.

Stella shrugged. "Do you think I have any idea? I can't see something that's INVISIBLE! - well, there's a good possibility that it's Peeves, but…"

Ernie pursed his lips to hide his laughter. Stella smiled.

"Well, I wanted to head to the library, maybe read a bit about Hogwarts or something like that," she said. "Have a good day!"

"You, too," Ernie said. "And Merry Christmas!"

She smiled and turned a corner towards the library.

* * *

Stella was in the library, reading the _Updated Counter-Curse Handbook_ , when she heard the screaming she had been hoping for.

She looked over at the Restricted Section. The door was wide open.

After a quick smile, she ran to the corner of the room, where she would be hidden by shadows. Her wand was drawn, and she twirled it around her body.

Almost immediately, the Disillusionment Charm worked. Stella smiled and walked through the door.

It took a second for her to find the door to the Mirror - she only found it because she saw Harry going through it himself. (That was what she was betting on, and it worked like a charm.) Just as she had pictured, the room was empty, except for a large, ornate mirror in the corner. The inscription _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_ was printed on the top.

"I show not your face but your heart's desire," Stella muttered, Harry not hearing her.

Harry hadn't seen the Mirror yet, so Stella creeped up and stood in front of it, waiting for something to be seen.

It took a second, as though the Mirror hadn't decided what Stella truly wanted. Finally, a figure appeared behind her - tall, brunette, and female, her face shrouded in shadow.

The figure stepped into the light.

It was Madison.

Stella gasped, looking behind her to make sure that it was an illusion - which it was, although Stella could've sworn she felt a cool breeze blow.

She looked back at the Mirror. She and Madison were no longer alone - Opa had joined them, flying over and landing on Stella's head. More figures began to show themselves in the Mirror - Stella's parents, her three little sisters, her nana - crowding around and smiling in the Mirror.

Now more figures were entering Stella's line of vision. There was Molly, holding a ukulele. There was Jonah, shaking hands with Madison and fiddling with his Rubik's Cube. There was Mackenzie, and Zoë, and Beatrix, and Ava, all crowding around and smiling at Stella.

Stella smiled, entranced by the people surrounding her. She reached out for them -

"Mum? Dad?"

The vision disappeared as she turned to see Harry next to her. Like Stella, his arm was stretched out, grabbing for a vision that wasn't real.

It took a second for Stella to reorient herself. She had no idea that the Mirror entranced people so much.

Before she could fall victim to the Mirror again, she raced out of the room, making sure not to hit anything in the Restricted Section on the way back.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts.**

 **1) Stella and Draco's rivalry is definitely going to be continuing throughout the story - although it might be lessened around Year 3 or 4 (she's a huge fan of The Flash).**

 **2) You might remember that "Alabanza" was referenced last chapter, in Stella's speech to Madison's body. I thought it would be good to get a reference in the aftermath as well, as a kind of connection between the immediate grief and the lasting effects.**

 **3) The line "Food always helps" is something that I had heard around school and decided to use with Stella. Her inspiration loved the line.**

 **4) I decided to focus on Stella this chapter as a way to look into the lives of the Hufflepuffs after losing one of their members. I also just enjoy writing for Stella - she's naturally funny while still being emotional, and she's a great place for references.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	12. Dear Mr Miranda

**Hi everybody! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 12:_**

 ** _Dear Mr. Miranda_**

" _Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.  
_ ' _Hagrid!' said Harry loudly. 'There's an owl -'  
_ ' _Pay him,' Hagrid grunted into the sofa.  
_ ' _What?'  
_ ' _He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets.'"_

" _Disapparate!_ " she said, suddenly arriving at the park. It was always an auspicious sign when she didn't have to get a ticket - especially since her mother had taught her Apparition from her mother's cell in Azkaban.

When her vision cleared, standing just behind the wall into Diagon Alley ( _why would there be a wall that you could just walk around?_ she thought. _What's the point of a wall, then?_ ), she could see a group of children - the four who had come back to present day for vacation.

"What did you think of Big Hero 6, Mackenzie?" said the one with a neat, brown bob.

"Oh my god, it was incredible!" said the girl with short pinkish-brown hair - Mackenzie, presumably. "I cried when Baymax died."

"I KNOW!" the brown bob girl said. "I even KNEW about it and I cried!"

"Why did you spoil yourself, Molly?" said the girl with curly, dirty-blonde hair. "Don't you want to be surprised?"

Molly shrugged. "I don't know, Ava - I just want to know if I need to bring tissues or not."

The last girl - one with blonde highlights in her hair - said, "It's a Pixar movie. You bring tissues. End of story."

"Disney made this one, actually," Mackenzie said. "Although, Zoë, it reminds me of something that Pixar would make."

"Yeah," Molly said. "Pixar almost killed the toys in a fire a few years ago."

"And they're putting out that _emotion_ movie in June," Ava said. "So _that's_ gonna be sad."

Molly giggled.

"Okay, you guys," she said. "Are you ready?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, let's huddle!" Zoë said, and the group huddled together. This was her time.

She pointed her wand at the sky. Almost immediately, it began to rain.

"Perfect," she whispered. She snuck up to the children, grabbing Molly's ankle. She let out a little cry of surprise, but didn't look back.

" _Disapparate_ ," she whispered, and everyone was tugged to London. Before the children could look up and see that they were, indeed, in modern-day London, she took the Time-Turner out of her pocket and pressed the button on it.

The world turned black for a split second, until the world cleared up to show the world of January 1992.

" _Disapparate,_ " she once again whispered, and the children vanished from her sight.

* * *

"I'm gonna send him a birthday letter," Stella told Beatrix in the hall on her way to Herbology. "His birthday's tomorrow, I know, but I want Molly's owl to make it to America and back safely -"

"You're WHAT?" Beatrix said. "You're not supposed to send letters to -"

"Please don't call him a Muggle," Stella said. "He's a confirmed Slytherin."

Beatrix rolled her eyes. "If anything, he goes to Ilvermorny."

"No," Stella said. "He goes to Hunter College Elementary School."

Beatrix stifled a laugh. "Of course. You know everything about him, don't you?"

Stella laughed - for real.

"Are you going to see the play that just premiered at the Public that he wrote?" Beatrix said.

"Probably - I heard it's going to Broadway this summer. Maybe I could go down for Easter break?"

"That's a good idea," Beatrix said. "Tell him I said hi."

Stella laughed again. "I'm at your service, madam."

Beatrix smiled as they parted ways, Stella heading for Herbology. Hardly any of the children were there yet, so she reached into her bag for a piece of parchment and a quill, along with her little jar of ink. She took off the jar's top and dipped her quill into the ink, putting her hand firmly on the parchment and writing, in her neatest (yet largest) cursive:

 _Dear Mr. Miranda,  
_ _I am a huge fan of your work and I just wanted to say happy birthday to you! Congratulations on the Tony for Best Musical, too - I really want to see that show live, maybe on tour or something like that. I'm a Muggleborn at Hogwarts (yes, Hogwarts is real), so if this arrives by owl, don't panic. Thanks and, once again, happy birthday!  
_ _Paciencia y fe,  
_ _Stella Martinez_

Carefully, Stella blew on the ink to dry it without smudging it. With some of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors arriving, she motioned for Molly to come over, and Molly obliged.

"What is it, Stella?" she asked. "What's on that parchment?"

"A birthday letter," Stella replied, "for a certain Lin-Manuel Miranda."

Unlike Beatrix's frantic reaction, Molly just sighed. "You're obsessed with that guy, aren't you?"

Stella giggled. "Well, I wouldn't say _obsessed_ \- I mean, he's a married man - I'm just a big fan of his work."

"You do know this is probably not going to arrive at the Public, right?" Molly said. "It's probably going to...uh, wherever he is right now, in January of 1992."

Stella's eyes widened, reminding Molly of herself whenever she realized that she had forgotten one critical fact.

"Oh, poop, you're right," Stella said. "Oh, well."

Molly laughed. "You probably want to borrow Madison for a bit, don't you?"

"Exactly," Stella said.

"Well, that's fine," Molly said. "Just make sure she gets back here before the weekend gets out.

"Great, thanks," Stella said. "Where is she?"

"In the Owlery," Molly explained. "I realized that I had kept her in my room the entire first part of the year, and I wanted her to meet some of the other owls."

"Did you feed her?" Stella queried.

"Of course I fed her," Molly said. "I'm not evil."

Stella smiled. "I'll get her after class."

"Sounds good," Molly said.

* * *

She got a letter back two days later.

 _Dear Stella,  
_ _Thanks for the birthday wishes. My mom saw the letter fly into our window while I was at school, and she showed it to me when I got back. I was really excited - I finally have proof that Hogwarts is real! I'm not sure what work you were referring to, but I hope someone likes the work that I'm doing! (We've been really hard at work in school.) Thanks again for wishing me happy birthday, and tell Harry and the crew I said hi!  
_ _I have the honor to be your obedient servant,  
_ _Lin-Manuel Miranda  
_ _(P.S. The "your obedient servant" thing is something I learned about in school. We're studying colonial times - and the first few years of America - and the letters that people sent at the time.)  
_ _(P.P.S. I was really excited that_ The Will Rogers Follies _won Best Musical, too! Julie Andrews and Jeremy Irons were awesome as the hosts.)_

"OH MY GOD HE WROTE BACK!" Stella screamed as she ran into the Gryffindor common room with the piece of parchment in her hand.

"He _what_?" Molly said, coming out of her room. (She could hear Stella from all the way upstairs.)

"He wrote back!" Stella repeated. "I have a letter in my possession from _the_ Lin-Manuel Miranda."

Molly arrived in the common room. "Let me see!"

She grabbed the letter and read it.

"OH MY GOD HE WROTE BACK!" Molly screamed, jumping up and down like a schoolgirl.

"I know, right?" Stella said. "And he's _exactly_ what I imagined he'd be like!"

"He seems really sweet," Molly said. "I told you it would go to 1992, though."

"I knew that."

"I know. Now I want to see that show at the Public you were telling me about."

"It looks good," Stella said. "It's opening on Broadway soon, too."

"Nice," Molly said. "See you in Herbology."

Stella smiled and walked out the door.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) This chapter is more lighthearted than other chapters - mostly because last chapter was kinda emotional, and next chapter is even more emotional.**

 **2) This chapter also is the first hint at who/what is sending the children back and forth between Florida and Hogwarts. If you have a guess on who it might be, send me a PM with the subject line "Shine On Rainy Day Prediction."**

 **3) Stella's inspiration actually gave me the idea for her to write a letter to Lin for his birthday - and I came up with the idea to have it be delivered to 1992-Lin instead of 2015-Lin.**

 **4) My "I'm not evil" line while talking to Stella was meant as a reminder to some of my friends that have input in the story that I did, indeed, take care of Madison the owl. Stella's inspiration told me that she had to disagree, giving me examples of scenes that I had written for this story and for another (right now, the only two I can reveal that she mentioned are Madison and Opa), and I reminded her that she forgot one (another one that I can't reveal). Then Opa's inspiration told me, "You did forget your owl even existed and kept it in a cage." So...maybe the point I was trying to make didn't work...**

 **5) The detail about Stella's largest cursive is from real life - Stella's inspiration prides herself on having the largest handwriting in school.**

 **6) _The Will Rogers Folies_ is an actual musical that won the Best Musical Tony in the summer of 1991. I did some research to figure out which musical won at that time, and I stumbled upon an interesting tidbit - right before Wormtail revived him, Voldemort won a Tony for his performance as the main character in Hamlet! (I'm not even joking - look it up.)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	13. The Magic Feather

**Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy the new chapter! This one was a lot of fun to write - and it's a big point in the story.**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 13:_**

 ** _The Magic Feather_**

" _As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card.  
_ _'Dumbledore again,' he said. 'He was the first one I ever -'  
_ _He gasped. He stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up at Ron and Hermione.  
_ _'I've found him!' he whispered."_

"Hey, Hermione," Molly said as she passed the bookworm in the hallway. "I haven't seen you in a while."

Hermione nodded. "I've been busy," she said. "Oh - I got to see Beauty and the Beast over the holiday!"

"Really!" Molly said. "What did you think?"

"Oh, it was wonderful!" Hermione said. "Belle was so incredible - and that Enchantress was very skilled at Transfiguration."

Molly giggled. "I never thought about it that way before," she said. "Did you figure out who that Nicolas Flamel was?"

Hermione nodded. "We figured it out a few days ago," she said. "Nicolas Flamel is the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, which is hidden in the school and can create the Elixir of Life, which Voldemort is trying to get so that he can become immortal!"

"Wait…" Molly said. "The Philosopher's Stone?"

Hermione nodded eagerly.

"Don't you mean the Sorcerer's Stone?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Why on earth would you think it's called the Sorcerer's Stone?"

Molly shrugged. Suddenly, she heard a voice from down the hallway.

"What's this about the Philosopher's Stone?" Beatrix said, walking up to the two girls.

"Uh...Hermione was just telling me about it - it's hidden somewhere in the school," she said, lowering her voice to a whisper. "But I thought it was called the Sorcerer's Stone."

Beatrix rolled her eyes.

"What - you, too?" Molly said.

"It's a long story," Beatrix said. "Have a good day, Hermione."

"You, too, Beatrix," Hermione said as she walked off to her next class. Beatrix lowered her voice.

"The Sorcerer's Stone is the American title for the first book and movie - but the Philosopher's Stone is the original title, so it's bound to be more accurate," Beatrix explained.

Molly nodded. "Got it. Have a good day!"

"You, too!" Beatrix said. "See you at dinner!"

Molly waved and walked in the direction of Charms class, going over the incantation for the Severing Charm in her head.

Little did she know that her peaceful winter at Hogwarts was quickly coming to an end.

* * *

Stella frowned as she sat on her bed in the Hufflepuff common room.

She knew what was coming in a few days. Ron'd had to go to the hospital wing in the middle of class a few days before, which meant that Harry and Hermione's sneaking out was going to be occurring soon - and she did not want Neville to get detention.

So what was she to do?

She'd decided not to leave Hogwarts over spring break so that she could see what she needed to do. On May 2, she decided to take a break from her "Battle of Hogwarts" party with Beatrix and Ava and go down to the Gryffindor common room.

Carefully, she crept through the halls to find the Fat Lady's painting slightly ajar, being held open by Neville.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Holding the door open for Harry and Hermione -"

"You don't need to - they'll be fine -"

"But the Fat Lady's gone - they won't be able to -"

"Oh, I think that's the least of their problems at this point," Stella said. "Get in there -"

"What's all the racket down there?" a voice boomed. McGonagall, Stella thought.

"See what I mean?" Stella said, keeping her voice to a minimum. "Now go before she finds you!"

McGonagall's shadow was beginning to peek out from the wall. Without thinking, Stella shoved Neville into the dorm and slammed the Fat Lady's portrait against the wall.

Then she realized she was out in the open - and before she could do anything, McGonagall appeared in the hallway.

"Stella Martinez?" she asked. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Er…" Stella couldn't find a way out of this one.

"Students are not allowed to be out at night," she said firmly. "That's twenty points you've lost for Hufflepuff."

"But -"

"And a detention, because it's so late in the year that you should know better."

"But Professor -"

"No ifs, ands, or buts about it, Miss Martinez," McGonagall said. "I've made my decision quite clear."

Stella sighed - she should've known this was coming. "Yes, Professor."

"Now come with me," McGonagall said. "This is the second student I've seen out of bed tonight - I've never felt so ashamed."

Stella followed her, not noticing the Fat Lady's portrait open up behind her.

After about a minute of walking, the two arrived at McGonagall's office - and Stella noticed Harry and Hermione sitting in two of the chairs.

"Harry!" she cried in relief. "I was trying to stop you guys from getting in trouble - or at least, stopping -"

Harry motioned at her to keep it down, but McGonagall had already noticed the duo.

"Harry Potter - Hermione Granger - I've never seen the likes of this at Hogwarts before! Four students out in one night! You'd better have a good story for this!" McGonagall cried.

They didn't.

"I think I have an idea what's going on - it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon in order to get him out of bed and in trouble - I already have given him a detention and the loss of twenty points from Slytherin. I bet you think it's funny that Stella probably overheard you talking about it at lunch and believed it," McGonagall said.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I didn't come here because of the dragon -"

"Then why did you come?" McGonagall asked. Stella opened her mouth to answer, but realized she couldn't without revealing her secret.

"Precisely," McGonagall said. "I've already given Stella detention and the loss of twenty points from Hufflepuff, and you two will also be receiving detentions - oh, and the loss of fifty points from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry exclaimed.

"Each," McGonagall said. "It's about time you learned right and wrong. I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this -"

"Professor?" a voice said.

McGonagall turned around to see Molly standing in the doorway.

"Molly!" Stella said. "What are you doing here?"

"My thoughts exactly," McGonagall said. "You're the fifth student out-of-bed tonight - explain yourself!"

"I...uh...I heard all the ruckus outside, and it woke me up - and I went out to see if I could figure out what it was. I didn't know if it was someone bad - maybe the person who forced Jonah to kill Madison."

"Jonah killed Madison of his own accord," McGonagall said. "That much we know. We can't trust him - he's a Slytherin, those folks will use any means to do what they think is right."

"But he told me -"

"If you were talking to him, you must take anything he says with a grain of salt. There is no one bad in the school, and now you're becoming part of the problem. I don't care what your alibi is. I don't care if you were trying to help or hurt justice. You will also be receiving a detention, and fifty more points will be taken from Gryffindor!"

Molly gasped - she had never seen McGonagall so angry.

"But - but -" she stammered.

"My decision is final, Evans, and I am sticking to it. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been so disgusted at my own House - and any other houses, as a matter of fact."

She gave a pointed glance at Stella.

The first person to leave the room was Molly, with the other Gryffindors right behind her. Stella left last, sullenly going back to her room. When she arrived, she saw Beatrix and Ava sobbing over pictures of Lupin and Tonks.

"Guys?"

The two of them looked up to see Stella.

"Can you sleep in here tonight?" she asked.

Ava and Beatrix smiled.

"We'd love to," Beatrix said.

* * *

Molly ran into the nearest bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls - and just in time, too; if she had made it there a second later, Harry and Hermione would've seen her begin to sob.

Even now, she couldn't stop the waterfall of tears pouring down her face, blurring her vision in the incredibly cold bathroom. She cried and cried and cried until she had no more tears to cry - and she couldn't help but think it was weird that she had cried more over this than over the death of a friend. Well, this did have something to do with Madison, she thought.

Finally, her vision cleared, although Molly kept her eyes shut, trying to block out the reality of what had just happened. She sighed as she opened them and stood up to leave - but before she could, she noticed something.

It was a feather. A beautiful, shiny blue feather, the color of ice.

Molly went to pick it up, but her hands passed directly through it.

"That's weird," she said to herself.

She went to pick it up again, but she only felt a cool breeze when her hand passed through the feather.

Suddenly, another feather wafted down. Molly held her hand up to catch it, but once again, the feather passed directly through her hand.

Slowly, Molly looked up - to see an owl, the same color as the feathers, perched on the stall, looking down at Molly.

For some reason, the owl looked familiar, and Molly squinted to see why - I really need to get my glasses prescription updated when I get home, Molly thought - and then she realized.

Even the blue of being a ghost couldn't get rid of Opa's amber eyes.

"Opa?" Molly said, and the owl hooted. "Is that you?"

The owl winked, which Molly took to mean, Yeah, duh.

"Which means…"

She opened the stall - and saw someone she had never expected to see again.

It was Madison.

Molly couldn't get out her words - she was trying to say "Oh my goodness" or "What the enfer are you doing" but couldn't say a thing.

"Yeah, I know, no need to thank me…" Madison said jokingly.

"Wait - hold on -" Molly said, finally able to speak properly.

She drew her wand.

"So...Dr. Fern was talking about a material passing the liquid phase when turning solid…" (Dr. Fern was Molly's 5th grade science teacher.) "...what was that called? Deposition? Alright, and she's a ghost, or a spirit, so...I don't know if this works or not, but I might as well give it a try…"

She pointed her wand at Madison.

" _Deposio Spiritus_!" she cried.

Suddenly, a transformation occurred. Madison's body suddenly seemed more opaque, and it seemed to have a bit more color. Her clothes seemed to lay on her like normal clothes, and her feet touched the ground.

"Wow…" Molly said to herself. "That actually worked…"

And she knew what she had to do.

"What was that all about?" Madison said.

"This," Molly said, and ran up and gave her the biggest of hugs.

Madison seemed surprised at first, and then she hugged Molly back.

"I'm glad I got detention," Molly whispered.

"I'm glad, too - wait, what?" Madison said. "You got detention?"

Molly shrugged. "Curiosity kills the 11-year-old wizard, I guess."

Madison smiled. "In both of our cases."

Molly couldn't help but giggle. "Come on, I need to show you to someone."

"Okay, then - but what will they think if I'm solid?"

"I can change you back," Molly said, holding up her wand once more.

" _Sublimate Spiritus_!" she called, and a large, white mist filled the room. When it cleared, Molly could see Madison, once again, floating in midair.

"Oh - before we go - I have something to ask you," Molly said.

"Fire away," Madison replied.

"Did Jonah kill you of his own accord?"

"Heavens, no," Madison said. "Quirrell was controlling him through the Imperius Curse. He tried twice - hit Opa first."

"Perfect," Molly said. "Now come on!"

She ran out of the bathroom, no longer caring how much ruckus she made, Madison right behind her.

* * *

 **Thanks so much for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-scenes fun facts.**

 **1) I already know what you're thinking - why did I have Molly invent a spell? Well, we know that spells can be invented due to Severus Snape's spells in Book 6, and I was not letting this chapter go by without me giving Madison a hug.**

 **2) Deposition is an actual scientific concept - it's when a gas turns directly into a solid, without becoming a liquid first. And the opposite is sublimation - like when dry ice "melts."**

 **3) I thought that the _Philosopher's_ and _Sorcerer's_ confusion would be a funny thing to address, so I put it into Molly and Hermione's conversation at the beginning.**

 **4) Stella stopping Neville from getting detention and getting the detention herself was Stella's inspiration's idea.**

 **5) I always get really upset whenever I get into trouble, so I thought that it would be neat to insert that into the story.**

 **6) The line "I don't care if you were trying to help or hurt justice" is going to be echoed later on in the story.**

 **7) Yes, the chapter title is based on _Dumbo_.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing.**


	14. Not-Living Proof

**Hi everybody! This chapter is a little more lighthearted, so I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 14:**_

 _ **Not-Living Proof**_

 _"He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years."_

"Professor McGonagall!" a voice cried from the hallway.

McGonagall sighed.

"Alright, who's out there?" she yelled back. "Because whoever you are, I'm tempted to take sixty points from your House. You're the sixth person to be out at night, and I'm sick of -"

She turned around to see Molly, standing meekly in the doorway.

"And what are you doing here?" McGonagall said. "I told you to head straight to your tower - do you want me to give you two detentions?"

"No, ma'am," Molly said. "But there's something I need to show you."

"And what on earth could that be?"

"Proof that Jonah's innocent," Molly replied. McGonagall almost sighed in relief - it wasn't another problem to tack onto the growing list that was forming that night.

"Molly, I told you what happened. Jonah killed Madison and Opa. End of story."

She went to sit back down at her desk, but Molly continued to press.

"That part I'm not arguing with," she said. "The part that I'm denying is that he did it of his own accord - and I have living, breathing proof that I'm right - well, not living and breathing, but as close as you can be."

"What do you mean?" McGonagall asked. "There's nobody that we know of who witnessed her death -"

"Oh, but there is," Molly said. She turned to something outside the door.

"Come on out," she said.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" another female voice said. "Just let me fix my hair."

Molly laughed. "It doesn't matter! Just come out!"

"Fine," the voice said. A second later, the girl appeared in the doorway.

McGonagall's eyes widened.

"As I live and breathe...it's...it's Madison!" she cried. "But how is that possible?"

Madison smiled. "I'm a ghost - obviously."

"Well...I guess...we must have an eyewitness account…"

"My point exactly," Molly replied. "Madison, did Jonah kill you of his own accord?"

Madison shook her head firmly. "Quirrell cast the Imperius Curse on Jonah, forcing him to kill me and Opa."

McGonagall looked even more flustered.

"Wait...Quirrell? Why would he cast an Unforgivable?"

"He's partnered with Voldemort," Madison responded. "He tried to defeat Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest but failed, deciding to ally with him. Voldemort is currently on the back of Quirrell's head, trying to find the Sorcerer's Stone -"

"Philosopher's," Molly said, remembering her conversation with Hermione a few months back.

"Right," Madison said. "He's trying to find the Philosopher's Stone, create the Elixir of Life, drink it, and gain his own immortal body."

"And how do you know all this?" McGonagall asked.

"I saw it in -"

"In a mirror," Molly finished. (She didn't want McGonagall to find out that they were from the future.) "She saw Quirrell with his turban off, talking with Voldemort about finding the Stone."

Madison's eyes widened; without Molly realizing, she had just figured out exactly what Madison was doing when she was killed.

"And...then he saw you?"

"Exactly," Madison replied. "Jonah was there, too - and he took advantage."

"But what about solid, factual proof?" McGonagall said. "You're a ghost - I can't make sure your story is real - ghosts can't drink Veritaserum."

"What's that?" Molly asked.

"Not important," Madison replied. "The point is, there is solid, factual proof - I had Stella's camera on me when I saw Quirrell and Voldemort, and just before they saw me, I took a picture of them. If we can find that camera, we have proof!"

And all of a sudden, something clicked in Molly's mind.

"Was it...was it small, and black...about this big?" she asked, holding her hands up in about the size of a camera.

Madison nodded.

Molly's eyes widened. "I know who has the camera!"

"Who?" McGonagall asked.

"Jonah!" Molly said. "I found the camera in Quirrell's room, next to your body - and I gave it to him just before break ended. I think he still has it!"

"Then let's go ask him!" Madison said. She and Molly turned to leave, but McGonagall quickly swooped in and blocked their way.

"Now, I understand your motives, but it's the middle of the night," McGonagall said. "We can't have another student up at night."

Molly sighed. "Yes, Professor," she said, beginning to walk back to her room. Suddenly, she had an idea.

"Professor?" Molly asked.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" McGonagall said.

"Can I help with Jonah's questioning tomorrow?" she asked.

McGonagall smiled. "Why, certainly," she said. "I'll wait for you to arrive."

Molly smiled back. "That sounds wonderful."

She turned and left for her dorm.

* * *

Molly woke up fairly early the next morning, yawning profusely. She knew there was something important that day, but she couldn't remember what.

Then her conversation with Madison and Professor McGonagall came flooding back.

Almost immediately, Molly jumped out of her bed, got dressed in her uniform, and brushed her hair. Mackenzie, in the bed beside Molly's, finally started to wake up, just before Molly left the room.

"What...are you...doing?" Mackenzie yawned.

"No time to talk!" Molly said, sprinting around the room. "Got a bit of a day today!"

"Please don't sing that song from _Frozen_ ," Mackenzie said.

"I won't!" Molly called as she ran out of the room and down the spiral staircase. She flung the Fat Lady's portrait open and bounded toward the dungeons, nearly knocking over Beatrix and Ava, who were going to the library.

Finally, Molly arrived at the Slytherin dorms, McGonagall waiting outside with Madison.

"What took you so long?" Madison joked.

"The fact that alarm clocks don't work here," Molly responded. "I'm still amazed you were able to get a picture with that camera."

"It worked for Colin Creevey," Madison said.

"I'm sorry...who?" Molly asked.

"Never mind," Madison said. "Now let's get interrogating!"

"Do you know the password, Professor?" Molly asked.

McGonagall nodded. " _Callidus_!" she cried.

Instantly, the door opened.

"Come on in," she said, and Molly stepped into the room. Madison floated in after her.

"Jonah!" Molly cried. "I need to talk to you…"

"Coming!" Jonah's voice said, from the direction of the boys' dormitories. After a few seconds, he burst out of the dorms, his hair windblown.

"Hey, Madison," he said, gesturing to the ghost floating next to Molly. "So, what'd I miss - wait, MADISON?"

"I think you just answered your own question," Molly said. "We need the camera."

"Oh, so Madison's back, with an eyewitness story, but you need MY camera?" he said.

"Ghosts can't drink...uh, Variasarum or something like that. The point is, we need physical proof," Molly said.

"Be right back," Jonah said grudgingly. "And by the way, it's Ver-i-ta-ser-um."

He rushed back to the dorms. A few minutes later, he came back with a small black box in his hand - the camera, Molly thought.

"Happy now?" he said, handing Molly the camera.

"We'll see," Molly said, turning on the camera. "Now where's the review button?"

"Right there," Madison said, her silvery-blue finger pointing towards a silver, square-shaped button. Molly clicked it - and almost instantaneously, a picture of Quirrell and Voldemort appeared on the screen.

"There you have it," Molly said, handing the camera to McGonagall. "Indisputable proof."

McGonagall took the camera and looked at the picture. It didn't seem to be a hoax...and if Dumbledore's theory about Voldemort was true…

"Jonah Mullins," McGonagall said. "I officially declare you to be innocent of the crime of murdering Madison. You are no longer on probation."

Jonah gasped. "Really?" he said.

McGonagall nodded. "I was wrong to misjudge you - and I can't imagine how much agony it's been for you to be shunned by such a large portion of the student population. I'm sorry."

Jonah smirked - his version of saying "Thank you."

"Not a problem," he said. "I kinda liked being alone."

Molly rolled her eyes. "No, you didn't," she said.

He shrugged. "True," he admitted. "But that doesn't matter right now. What does matter is making sure the school population knows that I'm innocent."

"But don't tell them about Quirrell," Madison said. "That'll just make Voldemort angrier - and besides, I have a feeling Quirrell'll be gone before any of us know it."

"Are you sure about that?" McGonagall asked. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is very dangerous, and if he stays in the school any longer -"

"He'll be struck down by fate," Madison said. "We got this."

McGonagall sighed. "Alright," she said. "We got this."

She turned to Molly.

"Unfortunately, I must keep the points taken from Gryffindor House - as truthful as you were, you were up after hours, and I can't make excuses for any student."

"Yes, ma'am," Molly said. She'd had a feeling that this was coming.

"But," McGonagall continued, "in honor of your tenacity in proving that Jonah was innocent and your courage in helping to expose the person - or, should I say, people - responsible, I will take away your detention."

Molly's eyes lit up.

"Really?" she asked.

McGonagall smiled and nodded.

"Thank you so much!" Molly said, hugging McGonagall and running out of the Slytherin common room. "Come on, you guys! We need to tell Professor Dumbledore!"

Jonah, Madison, and Professor McGonagall followed behind her.

* * *

They stopped at a large statue of a gargoyle.

"What's this?" Molly asked.

"The entrance to Dumbledore's office," Jonah said. "McGonagall, the password…"

"Chocolate frogs!" McGonagall cried, and the gargoyle leapt to the side, revealing a circular staircase.

"Whoa," Molly said.

"Come on!" Madison said, floating up the stairs. As quickly as she could, Molly followed.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she cried. "I have to speak...with you…"

Her voice trailed off as she opened the door at the top of the stairs, and the majesty of Dumbledore's office opened itself up to her. The room was entirely circular, with silver, eccentric-looking devices all around the room. One blew a puff of white mist directly into her face, and for a second, Molly couldn't see anything but the mist surrounding her. Then it disappeared, giving Molly a chance to look at the portraits around the room. None of them looked familiar - well, except for one, which had the stern eyes of Draco Malfoy - but it was, without a doubt, not the boy himself, but an ancestor. On a large, wooden desk facing Molly, an old, brown hat lay - the Sorting Hat, Molly thought. Just above the desk was a balcony, with a large window that reminded Molly of the observatory where Astronomy class was held. A large, golden telescope was pointing outside - and, with one eye up to the small end of the telescope, was Professor Dumbledore, his hair matching the color of his robes.

He turned. "Hello, Miss Evans," he said. "Mr. Mullins, Ms. McGonagall - it's a pleasure to see all of you."

His eyes focused on Madison.

"And is this what you came for?" he said, beginning to walk down a set of stairs. "Well, Madison Clark - it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Hello, Professor," Madison said respectfully. "How are you?"

"Very well, thank you," Dumbledore replied. "People don't often ask me that anymore. And I am doing even better now that I see that you're here!"

Madison smiled.

"Thank you, Professor," she said. "We have something that we need to tell you."

"And what might that be?" Dumbledore said.

"Jonah's innocent," Madison said. "And we have proof."

Molly held up the camera, which Dumbledore took.

"Very interesting," he said. Molly carefully turned it on for him and pressed the review button. Instantly, the picture of Quirrell and Voldemort appeared on the screen.

"Quirrell cast the Imperius Curse on Jonah and forced him to kill Opa and me," Madison said. "Opa's in the girls' bathroom right now - she thought it would be best for her to stay behind."

"I see," Dumbledore said. "So it's Quirrell's fault, then?"

Madison nodded. "But you can't tell anyone - it'll only make Voldemort madder and more bloodthirsty."

McGonagall cringed when she heard Voldemort's name, but before she could say anything about it, Dumbledore put up a hand.

"Minerva," he said. "Remember our conversation ten years ago."

McGonagall closed her mouth and took a step back.

"The point is," Jonah said, "I'm innocent - I never killed Madison, and this is proof. Now we need to let the school know that."

Dumbledore nodded. "How about at lunch today?" he said.

"Sounds good," Molly said. "Can I make the speech?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Of course you can," he said.

Molly smiled back.

"Now come on!" she said, heading towards the staircase. "We've got a speech to make!"

She ran down the staircase. A few seconds later, she came back up.

"I've always wanted to do this," she said, sitting on the railing and sliding down the rest of the way.

"Finally, they're opening up the gates!" she sang as she slid down.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here's the behind-the-magic fun facts for this chapter.**

 **1) The camera finally paid off! I knew that the picture would be important in some way, and I actually wasn't sure what it was going to be for until I got to this chapter.**

 **2) Mackenzie's inspiration isn't the biggest Frozen fan in the world, so I thought it would be funny to give her that line. And I've actually never slid down a railing, but if I could, I'd totally be singing "For the First Time in Forever." (Speaking of which, have any of you seen _Olaf's Frozen Adventure_? I've seen it three times - twice with _Coco_ and once on ABC - and I can't get the songs out of my head.)**

 **3) Yes, the Draco Malfoy-looking painting is Phineas Nigellus Black. I thought it would be cool to have Molly see him a little prematurely compared to Harry.**

 **4) Dumbledore's theory, just in case it's hard to figure it out (that's totally my fault, by the way), is that Voldemort didn't completely die when Harry "killed" him.**

 **5) Because the timeline must be kept as intact as possible, Molly's fifty points lost will be the substitute for Neville's. One of the cool things for me was changing the series ever so slightly without altering the timeline to the point where we get into Act III of Cursed Child levels of crazy. (Yes, I like Cursed Child. Sue me. Stella's inspiration doesn't, so you'll get some snarkiness about it later on.)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	15. A Complete Secret

**Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter - this one is the end of the "Philosopher's Stone" portion of Shine On Rainy Day. Thanks for sticking with me so long, and I'm really excited for you to find out what "Chamber of Secrets" has in store!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 15:_**

 ** _A Complete Secret_**

"' _What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it.'"_

After Molly's speech to the school, everything seemed to be going normally. Stella nearly cried with relief when she heard that Madison had come back in ghost form, and Mackenzie cheered when she heard that Jonah was no longer on probation. Other than the looming exams, everything seemed normal - it was like the first few months of school, when nobody had died and life was good.

The exams ended up being easier than Molly had thought - then again, Molly had always worried about things for them to be easy back at her old school. Her favorite were the practical exams in Charms and Potions - Snape didn't bother her _nearly_ as much as he bothered some of the other students, like Harry and Neville.

Finally, the classes were over, and Molly was free to spend her last week of school hanging out in the common room with Mackenzie, Neville, the twins, and any other students the Gryffindors decided to give the password to. Ava gave Molly a book that she had bought over spring break - _The Lightning Thief,_ it was called. Molly finished it in a day, reading fervently in her favorite chair about satyrs and Furies and Auntie Em.

The day after the exams, however, Molly came down to find Neville lying on the ground, his arms and legs pushed together in a straight line, a white mist, almost like snow, covering him.

Molly drew her wand. " _Locomotor Neville!_ " she cried.

The mist disappeared, and Neville's limbs relaxed. He blinked.

"What's happened?" he cried. "They - they froze me - and then -"

"Wait…" Molly said. " _Who_ froze you?"

"Hermione," he said. "She - she was with Harry - and - and Ron - and -"

"Hold on," Molly said. "Where are they?"

"Hermione came back here - Dumbledore brought her. Ron and Harry - I don't know."

"And Dumbledore didn't see you?" Molly asked.

"He did," Neville said. "He said he would be right down to help, but then he rushed off."

Molly's eyes widened.

"Mackenzie - where's Mackenzie?" she said, rushing upstairs.

Mackenzie, thankfully, was still fast asleep in the room that she shared with Molly.

"Mackenzie!" Molly said, thrusting her arms on the sleeping girl. "Mackenzie - wake - up!"

After a minute or two of shaking, Mackenzie opened her eyes and yawned.

"What is it?" she asked. "I'm tired."

"Harry and Ron are missing!" Molly said. "You've seen the movies - what happened?"

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "They went to get the Stone before Voldemort could."

She turned over to go back to sleep.

Molly rolled her eyes in return. "Well, _you're_ no help," Molly said.

She ran downstairs to see Ron, pale and shaky, looking at Molly.

"Ron!" she said, running over to see him. "Oh, thank goodness - _where's Harry?_ "

"In the hospital wing," he said. "He had a long night."

"Thank you," Molly said, sprinting out of the common room and towards the hospital wing. When she arrived, however, Madam Pomfrey was blocking her way.

"I'm not allowing anyone in here," she said. "There's a student who needs his rest -"

"I won't bother him," Molly said. "I just want to make sure he's alive."

"Oh, I'm sure he is, but go ahead," Madam Pomfrey said. "You have five minutes."

"Thank you," Molly said, rushing inside.

On one of the cots lay Harry, his eyes closed and his face pale, almost green-looking. Small cuts adorned his face, his lightning scar a bright red.

Molly ran over to him and checked his pulse. Thankfully, there was one - although it was fairly faint, almost _too_ faint for Molly to stay calm.

Her brow furrowed as she sat by him, hoping desperately that he would stir before Molly was forced to leave. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, Madam Pomfrey walked over.

"It's time," she said.

Molly gritted her teeth and nodded, walking calmly out of the room. As soon as Madam Pomfrey went back in, she sprinted back to the common room.

" _Pig snout_ ," she said, and the painting opened. She ran into the room, where Ron and Neville were sitting, Ron apologizing over and over for having to freeze Neville.

"Neville, he's in the hospital wing," she said, sitting down in a chair next to them. "He went with Ron and Hermione to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort."

"Wait, what?" Neville said. "Ron, that can't be -"

"It's true," Ron said. "We had to - we thought that Snape was going to take it and give it to You-Know-Who - if he did that, the most powerful Dark wizard in fifty years would be immortal."

"Well…" Molly said. "How do I say this...Snape's innocent."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "But he was threatening Quirrell -"

"No, Quirrell was being threatened by _Voldemort_ ," Molly explained.

Ron quickly covered his ears. "Don't say that name!"

"Sorry," Molly said, half-sarcastically. "The point was, Vol - sorry, _You-Know-Who_ \- was telling Quirrell to find the stone quicker. _Quirrell_ killed Madison after she tried to expose him. _Quirrell_ was bewitching Harry's broom - Hermione knocked into him when going to set Snape on fire, and that's why the broom stopped."

"Whoa," Ron said. "Is Harry okay?"

"I think," Molly said. "After you told me where he was, I went and checked on him. He's alive - he's a little scratched up, but he's still breathing."

Ron seemed to shrink as he sighed in relief. "That's good," he said. "So now we wait."

Molly nodded. "Now we wait."

* * *

Two days later, Molly was re-reading the Lotus Casino part of _The Lightning Thief_ when she heard a knock on the Fat Lady's painting.

"I'll be right there," Molly said. "I'm almost done with the chapter."

A flick of the page, and Molly was satisfied. She put the book down, the pages open underneath the cover, and walked over to the portrait.

She opened up the portrait to see Beatrix.

"What's going on?" Molly said. "Exam results don't come out for another four days -"

"He's awake," Beatrix said.

"Who's awake?" Molly said.

"Harry," Beatrix replied. "I just saw Dumbledore walking out of the hospital wing."

Molly's eyes widened.

"RON! HERMIONE!" she called. "I NEED YOU GUYS!"

A few minutes later, the two ran down from their respective dorms.

"What's going on?" Hermione said, her wand drawn.

"Harry's awake," Molly said. "Go over there - tell me how he is."

"Will do," Ron said, sprinting towards the door. Hermione followed him out, then came back.

"Come on, Molly," she said.

Molly's face brightened, and she ran out to join them.

"Oh, very well," Molly heard Madam Pomfrey say. "But five minutes _only_."

And she motioned for the three of them to come in.

"Harry!" Molly said, running in to see Harry again. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Harry said, although his hoarse voice and slow, stiff movements told her otherwise.

"What happened?" Hermione said. "We were sure you were going to - Dumbledore was so worried -"

"The whole school's talking about it - and Molly here has been spreading rumors," Ron said.

"So tell us the story," Molly said. "What _really_ happened?"

Harry took a deep breath.

"So, Molly - Ron, Hermione and I went to stop Snape from getting the Philosopher's Stone so that he could give it to Voldemort."

"Hermione told me about that part," Molly said. "And then…"

"So we went to the third floor corridor to stop him," Harry said. "Yes, I know, it's forbidden, but we had our reasons. Hagrid had told us accidentally that music puts Fluffy to sleep - you know about Fluffy, right?"

"You told me about him right before Christmas break," Molly said. "So...one of you can play an instrument?"

"Harry and I played a flute to calm him down," Hermione explained.

"Hermione was loads better than me, of course," Harry said. "So we dropped down, one by one, into the trapdoor below Fluffy - and Hermione helped us get out of some Devil's Snare."

"Which Ron helped a little with - he helped me keep my head on," Hermione said.

"Well, thanks for the credit," Ron said jokingly, although he still kept his eyes on Harry, hanging on every word.

"And so we used our flying skills to get a key to open up a door, and then we had to play chess to get across another room - Ron sacrificed himself, so he doesn't know the rest. After your piece was captured, we checkmated the king and made it out, and we found a room with a riddle, and potions. Hermione solved the riddle and gave me the potion that would get me to the Stone, and she went back. But this is where none of you guys know exactly what happened."

"What happened?" the three of them said at exactly the same moment.

"Quirrell," Harry said, shuddering.

Hermione, Molly, and Ron gasped. While Ron and Molly had known, it was still a bit scary when told from the horse's mouth.

"Wait...Quirrell was after the Stone?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "He was trying to get it for something that was under his turban. He turned away from me after a very large amount of monologuing, and he lifted it, and underneath…"

He paused dramatically.

"...was Voldemort."

Molly's eyes widened - again, it was still a little scary that Voldemort had been in the school, and that Harry had had a run-in with him. Ron gasped, and Hermione let out a small scream.

"How did you defeat him?" Molly said.

"I looked at the Mirror of Erised - that mirror I found earlier in the year," he said. "I knew that at that point, the thing I wanted the most was to find the Stone, but not use it - and Dumbledore had _enchanted the mirror_ so that the Stone was in the mirror! I lied to Voldemort and told him that I didn't have it, and then I charged - as soon as I put my hands on him, Quirrell started dissolving. I passed out, though, before he was _completely_ gone."

Molly nodded along. "And how did you wake up?"

"Someone had brought me up to the hospital wing, and Dumbledore woke me up - he told me that the Stone had been destroyed, so Voldemort can't use it anymore. He also told me why Quirrell dissolved - since he was connected to Voldemort, and Voldemort can't hurt me because of the love shield that my mom had given me back when I was a baby, Quirrell couldn't touch me."

"That's really cool!" Molly said. "So then how did Ron and Hermione get out?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "How did you guys get out?"

"Dumbledore," Hermione said. "He ran through the fire that was keeping me in the Potions room - he grabbed Harry just before he passed out. We left together and he grabbed Ron and brought him to the hospital wing. He escorted me back to Gryffindor House - but he forgot to get Neville before leaving, and I was so exhausted that I just got under the covers and fell asleep. Those beds are very comfortable, you know."

"And I unfroze him later," Molly said.

"But wait - you said the Stone was destroyed," Ron said. "So, Nicolas Flamel - he's just - he's just going to _die_!"

Harry shrugged. "Dumbledore said that it was fine with them - something like ' _To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure_.'"

"He is mad," Ron said, a large smile on his face.

"Bonkers," Hermione agreed.

"Off his rocker," Molly said. "But anyway, you've got to get better in time for the big feast - I don't know if I could handle Slytherin winning because of me without you."

"It wasn't because of you," Harry said. "It's all of us."

"Hey, don't put me into this!" Ron said, backing a step or two away.

The group laughed.

"In all seriousness, though," Ron said, "you should come to the feast - that is, if you're feeling better. We were flattened in the last match against Ravenclaw without you, and Slytherin's still in the lead, but it would still be fun."

Suddenly, Madam Pomfrey walked over and pointed towards the door.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT," she said.

Molly smiled and gestured to the door.

"After you," she said jokingly. Ron and Hermione smiled and headed towards the door. Molly turned her head towards Harry.

"Feel better," she said.

He smiled and lay back down. Molly, still smiling, left the room.

* * *

 _I really need to read the first book now,_ Molly thought as she and the other Gryffindors filed into the Great Hall, Harry joining them. She couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu - it only seemed like yesterday that she had sat next to Harry after being Sorted into Gryffindor.

"Welcome to our feast!" Dumbledore said once everyone was seated. Molly glanced over at the other tables - her eyes caught Stella's, and they waved to each other.

"Now, as the points stand, Slytherin is in the lead, with four hundred seventy-two points."

Molly heard a loud cheer come from the Slytherins. She looked over to see almost the entire table rejoicing. Only Ava, Jonah, and Zoë stayed calm, Zoë rolling her eyes.

"However, recent events must be taken into account," Dumbledore said. The Slytherins' cheering died down immediately, and Molly looked at Harry, who was sitting across from her. His eyes widened.

 _Did you know?_ Molly mouthed.

Harry shook his head in bewilderment.

"First, to Mister Ronald Weasley - for the best game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor fifty points."

The table went nuts - Percy stood up, grabbing Ron, and bragged about him; Ron turned as red as his hair; only Mackenzie, sitting next to Molly, didn't start screaming.

Molly giggled and leaned over.

"What's up with this?" she whispered.

"You'll see," she said with a sly smile.

Molly giggled again.

"Are you sure you're not a Slytherin?"

"Y'know, the Hat mentioned Slytherin," Mackenzie said. "But it decided Gryffindor."

Molly smiled.

"Second," Dumbledore said, "to Miss Hermione Granger - for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor fifty points."

Hermione, to Molly's other side, buried her head in her arms on the table, her body quivering with ecstatic sobbing. Molly wrapped her arm around Hermione, whispering "You did great" in her ear.

Hermione nodded and wrapped her arm around Molly. "Thank you."

Molly smiled and looked back up to Dumbledore.

"Third, to Mister Harry Potter - for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor sixty points."

Molly gasped as the Gryffindor table screamed. "Three hundred twelve," she muttered. "Add a hundred sixty - that's…"

She paused.

"Four hundred seventy-two," she said, looking back up at Dumbledore.

He raised his hand, and the cheering crowd quieted down.

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."

It might've been her imagination, but Molly could've sworn she saw the twinkle in Dumbledore's eye diminish - just a touch.

"Therefore, I award ten points to Mister Neville Longbottom."

The entire room nearly burst with the cheering of the other children - Hermione had lifted her head and was tearfully cheering and hugging Neville; Ron was hugging Harry and rubbing his head playfully; Draco, across the hall, was shocked - his face as white as a bedsheet.

"How'd being a pureblood work out for you?" Molly said quietly as she stood up and ran over to hug Harry.

* * *

It was just a few days later that the grades came out. Hermione had come out on top; Molly had gotten pretty high, as well, but she had never truly mastered History of Magic. In fact, everyone had passed; Molly and Beatrix thought this was delightful, but Harry and Ron were a bit bitter, since "everyone had passed," in their minds, was code for "Crabbe and Goyle are still going to be bothering us next year."

"You can't have everything in life," Ron pointed out.

"Where'd you hear that from?" Molly joked. "Your mom?"

Ron turned red and nodded.

"Cause that's actually really cool," Molly said. "Your mom's great."

He smiled, still red.

And just a few days after that, the dorms, which had been covered in quills and clothes, were bare; the students were packing up, finding their pets (Madison was delighted to learn that she was the namesake of Molly's owl, which had been taken care of extremely well in the Owlery), and saying their goodbyes (Molly showed Stella the _Deposio Spiritus_ spell so that she could give Madison one last hug); and the Hogwarts Express left for the trip back to King's Cross.

Molly and Jonah were the first two to leave the platform.

"On your mark!" Jonah cried. "Get set!"

 _Bring it on_ , Molly thought.

"GO!" he screamed as the two of them ran as fast as they could towards the platform wall. It was interesting for Molly to run through with her eyes open, watching the layers of the wall almost peel back for her as she ran through them, kind of like a mystical veil.

Stella and Ava were next - and as soon as they passed through, Stella reached for her phone. A few minutes later, she put it back in her pocket.

"Mum got my family and I tickets to Lin's new show," she said, an ecstatic squeal in her voice. "And there's an extra."

"I'll go with you," Ava said. "Beatrix told me about it - it sounds interesting."

Stella smiled. All of a sudden, Zoë, Beatrix, and Mackenzie burst through the wall.

"Ya ready?" Zoë said, her hair windblown.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Molly said.

"Hustle up, everyone!" Beatrix said. The group gathered together in a huddle.

A few feet away, another figure rose. She fingered her wand and flung it in the air. A clap of thunder rocked the room, and rain began to pour on the group of children.

"Excellent," the woman said, fingering the Time-Turner in her hands. She ran into the light - thank goodness her Disillusionment Charm worked - and grabbed Beatrix's ankle.

The button was pressed, and the world changed around the group. Before the group could realize that they were in London, she held her wand tighter.

" _Disapparate_ ," she said, picturing the world of Universal Studios.

A knot in her stomach was tied and then released, and the world materialized, with the large globe just in her eyesight.

She let go of Beatrix, pushing her hair - which, if not invisible to the world, would be blonde, with just a portion of her blue highlights - out of her face.

" _Disapparate_."

* * *

 **I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! Here are its behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) I first read _The Lightning Thief_ around the end of this time in real life for a school assignment, and I was hooked! The "Auntie Em" plot twist was really cool for me, and I'm still a huge fan of the books. For some reason, I really like the Lotus Casino part. (For anyone who reads them...OH MY GOD ANNABETH'S CRYING IN THE LAST MAGNUS CHASE BOOK AND SHE SAID THEY GOT BAD NEWS SO THAT BASICALLY MEANS SOMEONE DIED BUT IT CAN'T BE GROVER CAUSE HE AND PERCY HAVE THE EMPATHY LINK AND PERCY'S FINE SO WHO COULD IT BE IF IT'S LEO I'M GONNA CRY)**

 **Sorry for that rant. I will update you when the next book comes out in May. Fingers crossed Leo doesn't die.**

 **2) Stella and Ava getting to see _Hamilton_ will become very important later on. (I basically had a reference I wanted to make, but there's another twist that I ended up throwing in when I discovered a plot hole that I had created.)**

 **3) I've always liked the lab exams that I've had to taken in my science classes, so Potions and Charms, for me, would kind of be like the lab exams of Hogwarts. And I'll give you three guesses why Snape likes Molly better than Harry or Neville. (The first two guesses don't count.)**

 **4) I'm definitely the kind of person who would state the obvious, even if nobody can hear them, so I added that detail to the point-counting scene.**

 **5) Mackenzie telling Molly that the Hat mentioned Slytherin is a hint to real life - the inspiration for Mackenzie is actually in Slytherin in real life, but I already had so many people in Slytherin that I decided to put her in Gryffindor.**

 **6) When I first read the books, the point-counting scene was one of my favorite scenes _ever_ , so I definitely wanted to include it in this story.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	16. Welcome to Book 2

**Hey everybody! It's time to start Chamber of Secrets, so enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 16:**_

 _ **Welcome to Book 2**_

"' _WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU,' thundered his uncle, spraying spit over the table, 'ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?'  
_ ' _But I -'  
_ ' _HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!' roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.  
_ ' _I just -'  
_ ' _I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!'"_

Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number seventeen, Tumbleweed Road.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Molly screamed, pounding her fist on the wooden table in the middle of her family's house. " _INSIDE OUT_ WAS THE GREATEST PIXAR MOVIE EVER!"

Mrs. Evans rolled her eyes. "I liked it - it just felt a bit overhyped."

Mr. Evans shrugged and took a bite of his eggs. "But I'm glad you liked it."

Molly sighed. "I dunno," she said, eating a spoonful of cereal. "I just really liked it. I -"

"You cried into Mackenzie's popcorn, you told us a million times," Mrs. Evans said. "Bing Bong's death was the saddest thing you've ever seen."

"You should really watch _Up_ again," Mr. Evans said. "And make sure you bring tissues."

"Very funny," Molly said. "How much longer until we leave for Florida again?"

"Two days," Mrs. Evans said. "And you have a performance at the Farmers' Market tomorrow."

"And they want you to use your guitar," Mr. Evans said.

Molly nodded. She still wasn't used to owning a guitar - a beautiful guitar, made of Koa wood, that her parents had gotten for her for her birthday.

"Sure thing," Molly said. "How long is it for again?"

"Three hours," Mrs. Evans said. "But the bank across the street said that they'll let you use their bathroom."

"Good," Molly said. "Because I cannot hold it for three hours."

"You've performed there before," Mr. Evans said. "You've held it."

"And I've had to rush out at the end of the show," Molly said. She sighed. "I can't wait to go to school."

She giggled. Usually, in stories, kids didn't want to go back to school. School was a nightmare compared to the wonder of the summer. She thought of the Percy Jackson books, which she had just caught up with a few days before, and the wonder of Camp Half-Blood compared to the monotony of school.

But after what she had discovered about herself that school year, she had no qualms about returning.

* * *

Two days and one three-hour farmers' market performance later, Molly and her family packed up, prepared for their diet of Longhorn Steakhouse's Loaded Potato Soup, and hit the road. This time, Molly was prepared; she had brought the entire Percy Jackson series, the entire Land of Stories series, and the entire Harry Potter series - she thought it would be fitting to read the books in the building where they took place. She also brought her guitar, figuring that some practice throughout the school year would do her some good.

It was September 1st when they arrived in Florida, and they immediately dropped Molly and her bags off at Universal.

"Here's the phone again," Mrs. Evans said, handing the phone to Molly. "For when you get back."

"Sure thing," Molly said. "Love you two."

"Love you!" both of them said at the same time.

Molly smiled as they drove away. As soon as they were out of her sight, she turned on the phone and dialed a number. After a few minutes, a familiar voice said, "Hello?"

"Are you here yet, Mackenzie?" she said.

"Yeah," Mackenzie replied. "I'm in the train station - and so's everyone else."

"Great!" Molly said. "See you in a sec."

"Bye," Mackenzie said. Molly hung up, put the phone in her pocket, and walked into Universal, stopping at one of the shops in Diagon Alley for her course books - all by a man named Gilderoy Lockhart, except for the book that Molly knew was for Charms - and a broomstick of her own - a Nimbus 2000, just like Harry's.

A few minutes later, she and her bags arrived at the King's Cross replica in Universal Studios. She looked around, but couldn't see her friends. Suddenly, she heard a voice cry out.

"MOLLY!" the voice said. Molly turned as quickly as she could while keeping her bags in her hands, but before she knew what was happening, Stella was hugging her as though they hadn't seen each other in twenty years.

"Okay, okay, I missed you, too," Molly said. "Now let's do this."

"Yes, let's," Stella said. "We're over here."

She gestured to the corner of the train station, where Mackenzie, Beatrix, Zoë, Ava, and Jonah were waiting.

Molly smiled and ran over to the group.

As soon as they huddled together, Molly heard the sound of thunder cracking.

"Here we go," she muttered under her breath.

A split-second later, Molly felt the ground begin to shake, and she closed her eyes. After a few seconds of the shaking, the world stilled, and she opened them again.

She turned away from her friends and felt a sense of nostalgia sweep over her. This was King's Cross - this was King's Cross on September 1st, 1992 -

She was back.

"Come on!" she said, running ahead as though her bags, falling off of her shoulders and into the folds of her elbows, weren't a burden at all. She ran and ran, finally finding the platform she needed to be at.

"Where are the Weasleys?" Molly asked.

"Not here right now," Beatrix said as she caught up. "It's a long story, but it'd be good to just get on the train now."

Molly nodded and, still carrying her bags, ran as fast as she could into the wall, the layers of reality folding back like a thin veil as she arrived on the platform. Her feet flew behind her as she hopped onto the train and found a compartment near the front. Sitting inside was another girl, just a bit older than Molly, with bushy brown hair and warm brown eyes.

"Hey, Hermione," Molly said, sitting down.

"Hullo, Molly," Hermione said. "How was your summer?"

"It was good," Molly said. "I cried at a Disney movie."

Hermione stifled a laugh. "You should've seen me at Beauty and the Beast."

"Oh, goodness - well, the Disney movie coming out _this_ November is a lot funnier," Molly said.

"What's it called?" Hermione said.

" _Aladdin_ ," Molly said. "It's going to be really funny, from the looks of it."

"Cool," Hermione said. "Which Disney movie did you watch?"

Molly bit back the words _Inside Out_ \- she never had told Hermione that she was from the future.

"Uh, _Bambi,_ " she stammered.

Hermione nodded. "That one's sad," she said.

Molly nodded in return. "What are you excited to learn this year?" she asked.

Hermione shrugged. "Other than _everything_? Probably Defense Against the Dark Arts. The new teacher is really good, from the looks of it."

"What's their name?" Molly asked.

"Professor Gilderoy Lockhart," she said dreamily. "Harry got to meet him a few weeks ago."

"Really?" Molly said, remembering his name from the textbooks. "Is he nice?"

"He's the best," Hermione said. "He's written so many books about all the heroic deeds he's done - he's bested so many beasts that it isn't even funny!"

"I can't wait to meet him!" Molly said. "We deserve a good teacher after last year's Voldemort debacle."

Hermione nodded - Molly was surprised that she didn't tell Molly not to say the Dark wizard's name.

"I mean, he wasn't even that good of a teacher!" she said. "He wasn't entertaining or knowledgeable -"

"I know," Molly said. "I really liked Charms last year."

"Yeah, Professor Flitwick is really nice," Hermione said. "And I heard that we're learning Freezing Charms this year - not legitimate freezing yet, just keeping something from moving."

"Oh, that's really cool!" Molly said. "That could come in handy with Draco."

Hermione nodded.

Suddenly, the two girls could hear a large ruckus coming from a few compartments down.

"The Weasleys must be here," Molly said. "I bet the twins are down there, playing pranks on Crabbe and Goyle."

Hermione giggled. "Their jokes are a little rambunctious, but they're always fun to have around."

Molly nodded. "And man, do Crabbe and Goyle deserve it."

Now Hermione was laughing. "Oh, do they _ever_!"

Molly joined in on the laughing. This was going to be a fun year.

* * *

A few minutes later, the train started moving.

"Where's Harry and Ron?" Molly asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "Maybe I'll get some peace and quiet compared to last year."

"Yeah, last year was pretty crazy," Molly said. "There was Scabbers, and Malfoy, and me _not knowing anything_ -"

Hermione giggled. "Well, you know a lot this year, and that's good," she said. "Maybe we could have a bit of a friendly rivalry - you know, to push ourselves to be better."

Molly usually wasn't a fan of competition, but she nodded. "That's actually a good idea," she said. "And we don't have to worry about getting upset with our grades, because we're both good students."

"Sounds good!" Hermione said. "Let the rivalry begin!"

She held out her hand, and Hermione shook it firmly.

"Ow," Molly whispered. "You have a firm grip."

Hermione smiled as she let go. "I pride myself on it," she said.

Molly smiled back. "I'm gonna read for a bit, alright?"

Hermione nodded. "It's fine with me," she said.

Molly nodded back and reached into one of her many bags, taking out _The Blood of Olympus._

 _Jason hated being old_ , she read to herself, smiling. She was so glad that she had discovered the Percy Jackson books - or rather, that Ava had discovered them for her.

* * *

A few hours and the entire book later, the train pulled into the Hogwarts station.

"Here we are," Molly said to herself as she put the book back in her bag, balanced her bags on her arms and shoulders, and shuffled out of the compartment and off the train.

"Are we going in the boats again?" she asked Hermione as they walked together.

She shook her head. "We're taking the horseless carriages instead."

Molly's eyes widened.

"Horseless carriages," she not-quite-queried. "So that's a thing now."

Hermione smiled. "If you can imagine it, and picture it in your mind's eye, chances are it's real."

Molly smiled back. "If you can dream it, you can do it."

Hermione looked at Molly quizzically. "Is that a quote of some sort?"

"Walt Disney," Molly said. "It's safe to say I'm obsessed."

Hermione giggled, and the two focused on squeezing Molly's bags through the compact corridor.

Molly stepped outside, and she could already feel the magic hanging in the Scottish air. She was back.

Just a bit behind her, Stella popped out of the train.

"Oh, I never got to tell you," she said as she ran up to Molly and Hermione. "Remember that letter I wrote last year? The one to -"

"To Lin," Molly said, remembering Stella's ecstatic response to receiving a reply. "I remember."

"So, I got to meet him at the stage door after I saw _Hamilton_ \- which, by the way, was amazing - and I told him that I was the person who wrote the letter," Stella explained. "But he said something I wasn't expecting."

"What did he say?" Molly said.

"He didn't remember the letter," Stella said. "He didn't remember getting it, or writing a response back."

Molly's eyes widened. "But how - I mean, maybe he just didn't remember -"

"No, but I realized something else," Stella said. By this point, the three - Stella, Molly, and Hermione - were stepping into one of the many horseless carriages. Jonah, a few carriages down, was pretending to pet the horse that should've been in front of the carriage.

Stella reached into her pocket and took out a piece of paper - the letter that she had received from Lin.

"He says, _I finally have proof that Hogwarts is real_ ," Stella indicated. "I sent the letter to him in 1992 - the books didn't come out in America until 1998."

Molly gasped. "Which means -"

"Lin didn't write the letter," Stella said. "And whoever did - they might be the key to finding out who brought us here in the first place."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) Regarding my Percy Jackson rant in the last chapter: it was just brought to my attention that it might be Estelle Blofis (Percy's sister) who Percy and Annabeth get the bad news about. Please, no.**

 **2) And here's the plot hole that I had to fill! I realized as I was rereading "Dear Mr. Miranda" that in 1992, the Harry Potter books wouldn't have come out yet, so the letter couldn't work within the story - but I had already put up the chapter. So...I did what any writer would do: turn a plot hole into a plot _twist_.**

 **3) I also just realized that I never had Molly suggest that Hermione watches _Newsies_ , which also came out in 1992. Dang it.**

 **4) That is one of my favorite Walt Disney quotes, so I thought it would be cool to include.**

 **5) The rivalry between Molly and Hermione is based on something that I did in real life with a classmate of mine. We each had perfect quiz grades for Science, so we decided to compete for who would get a higher grade on the final. She got a 97; I got a 99. _LOOK AT ME I'M THE KING OF NEW YORK..._**

 **6) Don't mean to make you sad, but no, Jonah is not _pretending_ to pet the Thestrals. He can see the Thestrals.**

 **7) I actually saw _Inside Out_ with Mackenzie's inspiration - and Madison's inspiration, because Madison is not dead in real life. Madison's inspiration and I still watch movies together - I saw _Cars 3_ with her and Opa; _Wonder_ with her, Stella, and Zoë; and _Coco_ for the second time with just her. She still teases me about crying into her popcorn.**

 **8) I perform at a few farmers' markets in my area - and there is one with a bank across the street that I need to go to for the bathroom.**

 **9) Yes, the opening is based on the opening to Chamber of Secrets. I did it for Philosopher's Stone; I can do it for Chamber of Secrets. I also thought it was a funny juxtaposition between Harry and Vernon arguing about using the word "magic" and Molly and her parents arguing about the quality of _Inside Out_.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	17. So You Deserve Some Applause

**Hello again! This is one of my favorite chapters so far, because I feel like it's the most accurate to real life. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 17:**_

 _ **So You Deserve Some Applause**_

" _Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough it was Professor McGonagall who accompanied him. Harry had seen Professor McGonagall angry on several occasions, but either he had forgotten just how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry before."_

The flying horseless carriages were amazing. Molly could feel the wind flying through her hair. Stella was sitting next to her, clutching to Molly for dear life, making sure that none of the course books fell out of the carriage.

"Is this what flying is like?" she said to Hermione.

"I dunno," she said. "You should ask Harry."

"I should," Molly said. Then she thought about something. "Hey, Hermione, where is Harry, anyway?"

She shrugged. "I didn't see him on the train."

Suddenly, as if on cue, the whining of a faulty car engine lit up the sky. Molly looked up to see a bright blue car flying in midair, beginning to lose altitude.

She looked into the car window. "Is that... _Harry?_ " she asked.

Hermione looked up. "It looks like him...but no, it can't be...he'd never be _that_ irresponsible…"

The car began to fall even further, almost hitting the castle before it swerved out of the way, hitting a large tree. As if activated by the car even touching it, the tree's branches blew back and then hit the car with extreme force in any direction possible.

Before Molly could see any more of the horrifying spectacle, the carriage dipped down, landing gently next to the door to Hogwarts. She sighed with relief - if that was Harry, she didn't want to see him committing such a blatant violation of the rules.

Instead, she turned her focus to the more important part of her narrative at that moment.

"I'm back," she whispered, a smile creeping across her face. She opened the carriage door and ran out, the first person to make it into the Great Hall. The ceiling/sky was a beautiful navy blue, with hints of purple.

"Molly!" she heard a voice call. She turned her head to see the entirety of Gryffindor House waving at her.

"Hey, guys!" she said, running over to the table where the House was sitting and giving everyone a big hug.

The last person she got to was Fred (or was it George? She honestly couldn't tell yet). As soon as she hugged him, she heard a noise, as though she had farted.

She broke the hug and looked at the twin - okay, yeah, that was definitely Fred.

"Whoopee cushion shirt," he said. "George and I invented it over the summer."

Molly started laughing, shaking her head gently. "You two…"

"Good to see you, too, Molly," Fred said.

Molly, still laughing, sat down at the table in between Fred and Hermione, who had entered the Great Hall right after her.

"I wonder when the Sorting's going to start!" she said.

"That'll be cool," Hermione said. "Y'know, _Ginny_ 's a part of it this year."

"Really!" Molly exclaimed. "Oh, that'll be _really_ cool! I hope she's in Gryffindor."

"She better be," Fred said. "Our entire generation has been in Gryffindor - and so were our parents - and I'd never want to compete with my sister for House points."

"Yeah, she's great," George said, leaning over Fred.

Suddenly, Molly heard someone clearing her throat. She looked toward the front of the room to see Professor McGonagall standing in the front of the room.

"We will now commence the Sorting," she said. She took out a list of students and began to read from it.

Many of the names weren't ones that Molly recognized. One boy, called as "Creevey, Colin," jumped off of the chair with a shout after being Sorted into Gryffindor. Molly noticed that he had a piece of paper in his hand - what looked like a picture of a baby. She recognized his name - wasn't that the person that was able to use a camera in the school, according to Madison?

Another girl had a name that Molly recognized - Luna Lovegood, who was Sorted into Ravenclaw. "I've heard about her," she told Hermione. "Have you met her?"

Hermione shrugged. "I hope Beatrix likes her."

"Oh, I have a feeling she's going to," Molly said.

Finally, after ages of waiting, "Weasley, Ginny" was called up to be Sorted. She sat on the stool for just a few seconds before the Hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Molly looked over at Fred and George, who were cheering, "GINNY! GINNY! GINNY!" as though she was a famous Quidditch player entering the field. She giggled as she stood up to say hi to Ginny.

"How's it going, Molly?" Ginny said as they hugged hello.

"It's going great," Molly said. "Ya know where Harry and Ron are?"

Ginny shrugged. "I didn't see them on the train."

Molly shrugged. "They're bound to show up sooner or later - maybe they just got lost in the crowd - although, I did see this big flying blue car flying into this tree that started smacking it like it was a plaything -"

"Wait…" Ginny said. "Did you say that it was a _blue_ car?

Molly nodded.

"Was it a Ford Anglia?" she asked.

Molly shrugged. "I dunno, it looked pretty old-fashioned, kinda boxy, and it was a bright sky blue…"

Ginny's eyes widened.

"Oh, no," she said. "That's…" She lowered her voice. "That's Dad's flying car."

Molly's eyes widened in response.

"Oh, God…" she said. "That is _not_ good."

Ginny nodded. Suddenly, a large throat-clearing quieted the room. Molly turned toward the front of the room to see Professor Snape, the Potions teacher, whispering something in Professor McGonagall's ear. Her face paled, and she left the table, motioning to Professor Dumbledore to follow her.

" _Definitely_ not good," Molly and Ginny said in unison.

* * *

Once the feast was done, Molly headed up to her dormitory. Percy told her the new password - which, for some reason, was "wattlebird." The Fat Lady's painting opened instantly, and when it opened, Molly saw the entirety of Gryffindor House jumping up and cheering.

"Whoa, whoa, what's going on?" she said.

As quickly as they had started, the Gryffindors stopped cheering. "Where's Harry?" Seamus said.

Molly shrugged. "Probably in trouble," she said. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for him," Dean said.

"We're going to surprise him -" Fred began.

"- to say thanks for _finally_ making the first day fun!" George finished.

"Guys, I don't think that's the best idea -" Molly started, but before she could finish, the Fat Lady's painting opened again, to reveal Ron and Harry standing together, Hermione a foot or so away from them.

Behind Molly, the Gryffindors started cheering again.

"People'll be talking about that for years -"

"- second years flying a car into the Whomping Willow -"

"Why couldn't we have come in the car, too, eh?"

" _SILENCIO!_ " Molly cried defiantly. The entire room fell silent.

"What are you thinking?" she said. "You're worshipping a guy who has broken the rules! Everyone's supposed to come on the train, and you two -" she turned and looked at Harry and Ron - "have made a show of doing exactly the opposite!"

"Well, actually…" Ron began, but Molly cut him off.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR ACTUALLIES!" she screamed. "You two shouldn't have flown in on a flying car - you should've come on the train - that's what everyone does. I assume you think ' _Oh, I'm the famous Harry Potter, I can do whatever I want, the train is for losers -_ ' well, guess what? Everyone else would've had a chance of being the best had you not been their age! Everyone else is just as good as you, so you can just zip it about being famous!"

"I didn't want to be -" Harry said.

"Oh, of _course_ you're going to say that!" Molly said. "You're going to do _anything_ to put yourself in the right - that's just how you are! Well, I won't stand for it! You're doing whatever you want - and you're disgracing Gryffindor House in the process."

Nobody was able to stop her rant, due to them being forced silent.

"And ya know what? I don't want to be associated with people who try to do everything for _attention!_ "

Finally satisfied, she ran upstairs to her dormitory. She breathed in the fresh air, where Mackenzie was sitting.

"Ya know, I could hear you from down there," Mackenzie said. "They didn't mean to do that."

Molly sighed. "Not you, too," she said. "Those kids need to learn that there are consequences in life."

Mackenzie shrugged. " _21 Chump Street_?" she asked.

Molly nodded. "I watched it on YouTube over the summer. Justin totally deserved better."

Mackenzie giggled. "Did you know that the actor who played him is in that _Hamilton_ show that Stella and Ava saw?"

Molly's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked.

"Really," Mackenzie said. "But he dies in it. Twice."

Molly cringed. "Poor guy," she said, sitting down on her bed. "Have a good night."

"You, too," Mackenzie said, lying down on the bed.

Molly smiled. Maybe she was upset with Ron and Harry, but there were other days to come. This would still be a good year.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) The chapter title is based on the Taylor Swift song "Better than Revenge." I love a lot of her older music, and while I'm not the biggest fan of some of her newer things, I still think she's a good songwriter.**

 **2) I'm not good with car models, so that's why I had to explain how the car looked to Ginny. The only car models I know are the ones we own. And the Santa Fe, because I'm _that_ big of a Newsies fan.**

 **3) The actor that Mackenzie is talking about is Anthony Ramos, who played Justin in _21 Chump Street_ and Laurens/Philip in _Hamilton_. He's currently at the Kennedy Center as Usnavi in _In the Heights_ , which is so perfect considering Stella's cat's name. (And that was entirely a coincidence: I wrote this chapter a while ago, back before Anthony announced he would be in the show.)**

 **4) Now, you might be asking, "Why is this similar to real life?" It's because I, ladies and gentlemen, am a perfectionist to an annoying degree. I hate it when people break the rules, and I've been known to burst at people just like I did to Harry and Ron in the story. This argument will become a major part of second year, so stay tuned.**

 **5) The twins are some of my favorite characters, and I loved the way the Marauder's Map scene was done in the books, with Fred and George finishing each other's sentences, so I thought that would be a neat detail to add to the lead-up to the argument. (By the way, to any of you who have seen _Coco_...are Oscar and Felipe Fred and George or are Oscar and Felipe Fred and George? It's the perfect comparison, yet I haven't seen anyone make it yet.)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	18. Nargles

**Hi everybody! Beatrix's inspiration wanted me to have a scene with her and Luna, and with her second year being Luna's first, I thought it would be good to have Beatrix act as a mentor to Luna. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 18:_**

 ** _Nargles_**

" _Harry knew at once why Neville had chosen to pass this compartment by. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down."_

"What has one eye but cannot see?" the painting said.

"A needle," Beatrix answered, and entered the room. Sitting in the common room, reading an issue of _The Quibbler_ , was another student.

"Hi," Beatrix said, and the girl looked up. "What's your name?"

"Luna," the girl said quietly, a hint of an Irish accent in her voice. "And yours?"

"Beatrix," she said, sitting down next to Luna. "How was your first day?"

She shrugged. "There've been a lot of Nargles hanging around me today."

"What's a Nargle?" Beatrix asked. "I've never heard about them in class."

"That's because they don't want you to know about them," Luna said. "They're tiny little creatures - about the size of a fly - and they steal your stuff. I've lost quills, shoes, even my radish earrings."

She brushed back her hair to show an empty hole in her ear.

"One minute, they were there, and the next - gone, just like that," Luna said, snapping her fingers together. "I can't figure out where they're coming from - they usually live near mistletoe, but there's none in sight."

Beatrix furrowed her brow, even though she knew exactly what had happened to Luna's belongings.

"Well, is there anything that Nargles don't like?" she asked.

"They don't like butterbeer," Luna said. "It sticks their wings together, and they can't get anywhere to steal anything."

"Well, then, maybe you could do something with butterbeer as a protection," Beatrix said. "A logical solution to a logical problem."

"I have some butterbeer caps in my dormitory," Luna said. "Where's yours?"

"I think I'm on the floor right above you," Beatrix said. "Maybe we could make something together?"

Luna smiled. "I'd like that," she said. "Maybe you could bring someone else in to help us."

Beatrix tried to think of who she'd have as a part of the butterbeer craft group. Suddenly, she remembered a conversation from the year before…

 _And Ravenclaw is for the smart people - Luna Lovegood's in that House. She's really cool - you're going to love her._

"I think I have an idea," Beatrix said.

* * *

The next afternoon, after her double Potions class (while she still wasn't the biggest fan of Snape, she did enjoy brewing Hair-Raising Potions), Molly was knocking on the door of the Slytherin common room.

A minute later, Zoë came to the door.

"Hey, Molly," she said. "What's going on?"

"We have some free time before dinner, and Beatrix invited me and you to be a part of a craft club," Molly said.

"With who?" Zoë asked.

"Luna Lovegood," Molly said. Zoë's mouth dropped open.

"Luna Lovegood?"

Molly nodded.

" _The_ Luna Lovegood?"

Molly nodded again.

"Sign me up!" Zoë said, rushing out of the common room, slamming the stone door shut behind her, and grabbing Molly's hand as she ran as fast as she could go.

"I'll take that as a yes," Molly said, smiling. This was going to be fun.

* * *

"So where are you from, Luna?" Molly asked as she took a butterbeer cap and used a toothpick to make a hole in the rim.

"Devon," she said, taking a clump of cotton and putting it on a small, handmade loom. "My father's house is there. But we travel a lot - he's always out and about, trying to find a new creature or two."

"He's a Magizoologist?" Beatrix said.

"Not really," Luna said. "He's an editor - he edits the _Quibbler_."

"Like...the magazine?" Zoë said.

Luna nodded. "He's putting out a great piece tomorrow on the Blibbering Humdinger."

"What's a Blibbering Humdinger?" Molly asked.

Luna stared at her incredulously. " _What's a Blibbering Humdinger?_ " she repeated. "Oh, do I have stories for you!"

Molly's eyes widened and she leaned in while poking holes in the caps.

"A Blibbering Humdinger is a small creature about the size of a fist," Luna said. "It almost looks like a bird crossed with a whale. Anything that it touches with its right wing will begin to grow - slowly, but surely - until it's ten times the size it was before!"

"Whoa!" Molly said. "Can it be reversed?"

"If it touches something with its left wing, it'll shrink back," Luna said. "Its blubber is very useful in Swelling Solutions."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "Wait...isn't that a bat spleen?"

"That's what they _want_ you to think," Luna said. "They're really poaching the Blibbering Humdingers for their blubber and their feathers - the feathers are good for Deflating Draughts, you know. That's what my father's writing the article about - they're going extinct, and nobody seems to care."

"That happens a lot in the Muggle world, too," Molly said. "Like a lot of fur coats, and ivory, and things like that. They're really just materials obtained through poaching."

"Maybe our worlds aren't so different," Luna said. "Although, I doubt you have someone as horrible as Fudge is as protecting creatures like that."

Molly smiled. "No, we don't, thankfully. There are actually a bunch of places that take care of endangered species and spread the word in order to keep them around."

"That's a relief," Luna said. "We have people like that, too - like Newt Scamander - the author of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_."

"Oh, I've heard about that book!" Molly said. "We got that one last year for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but we never used it."

"It's mainly for Care of Magical Creatures - an elective next year," Luna explained. "Usually they use it a bit in that class, but Quirrell was…"

"Weird," Molly finished, and Luna nodded.

"They say that his turban had Voldemort underneath it, but I think they're trying to hide something," Luna said. "What kind of idiot would come into the school with Voldemort on the back of his head?"

"I know someone who saw him, though," Molly said. "My friend Madison -"

"Who is a ghost, and can ghosts drink Veritaserum?" Luna said. "Nope."

Molly stifled a giggle - she knew she'd never win against Luna in a debate of this sort, but she couldn't help having fun with it.

"Well, there was that picture that they found of Quirrell with his turban off," Zoë interjected.

"Photos can be tampered with," Luna said, not looking up from the string-weaving loom. "There are plenty of ways that _that_ could've been a hoax."

Molly smiled. "What does your father think?"

"He doesn't really pay attention to those kinds of occurrences," Luna said. "He's more into magical creatures, like the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

"Is that another animal that nobody thinks is real?" Molly said.

"Yeah, except for me and my father," Luna said. "The Crumple-Horned Snorkack is a really cool animal - it lives in Sweden, and it roams around. It has a big horn coming out of its head - it almost looks like an Erumpent horn, but bigger and wider at the spot where it meets the head. It's pretty peaceful - it doesn't usually bother humans, but Colin Creevey - the new Gryffindor - was telling me that he wanted to go to Sweden over the Christmas holiday and take a picture of one."

"That would be neat," Molly said. "Have you ever seen one?"

Luna sighed. "No," she admitted. "But I hope to one day."

"I hope you can," Molly said. "It sounds really interesting."

Luna nodded. Suddenly, she jumped. "Ow!"

"What is it?" Molly said, trying to move over as quickly as she could without standing up.

"I pricked myself on the loom," Luna said, holding up her finger to show a drop of blood.

Molly's eyes widened. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Luna said, drawing her wand. She pointed its tip at the cut. " _Episkey_."

Slowly, the blood rolled back into the cut, which sealed up as though it was never there.

"See?" Luna said. "Good as new."

"Whoa," Molly said. "Where did you learn that spell?"

"My dad taught me," Luna said. "He's a very smart man - although no one else seems to think so."

Molly took Luna's hand. "Well, I do," she said. "We all do."

She gestured to Beatrix and Zoë, who both nodded. "Whatever you need, we'll be there for you," Beatrix said.

Luna's face brightened. "Thanks."

* * *

As soon as she left, Molly darted towards the girls' bathroom. Not any old girls' bathroom - the one that no one used, the one that Moaning Myrtle was in. There was someone she needed to see.

She opened the door. "Madison?" she said. "Ya here?"

A blue light swept down from the ceiling. "Madison Clark, at your service," the light said. "What may I do for you -"

Madison stopped when she saw Molly.

"Molly?" she asked, shocked.

"We're back," Molly said. "It's another year, after all."

Madison looked down at Molly's wand, stuck in her back pocket. "Spell," she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

Molly raised an eyebrow.

"Spell," Madison said again, louder.

Molly shook her head. "I don't know what you mean."

"You know...the spell," Madison said. "The one you came up with last year."

"Oh, _that_ spell," Molly said. "I didn't know what you wanted me to spell - I'm still way too used to my old school."

She drew her wand from her back pocket and pointed it at Madison.

" _Deposio Spiritus!_ " she cried. In a misty vapor, Madison turned solid, touching the ground.

"Alright, let me give you a hug," Madison said, running over to Molly and doing exactly that. Molly smiled, breaking it after a few seconds.

"I'm still sorry you couldn't go see your family over the summer," Molly said. "I can't imagine what they would feel like -"

"They're dead," Madison said nonchalantly. "They died in a car wreck when I was, like, two."

Molly's face fell. "God, I'm sorry," she said. "I had no idea -"

"Oh, it's fine," Madison said. "I got put in an orphanage, and every weekend they'd turn on one of those Harry Potter weekends on ABC Family, and I fell in love."

Molly sighed. "So have you ever read the books?"

Madison shook her head. "They didn't have them in the orphanage - they just had the classics, like _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and _A Wrinkle in Time_. I never really got to read them, though - a lot of them were too old for me."

Molly nodded. "I've wanted to read _To Kill a Mockingbird_ for a while - maybe I could bring it over Christmas break, and we could read it together."

Madison smiled. "That would be great."

"And I have the Harry Potter books with me this year," Molly said. "Here, I'll be right back -"

She rushed out of the bathroom. A few minutes later, she came back with the first book.

"I've been wanting to read this anyway," she said, opening up the book. "Just a warning - I sometimes start reading ahead and stop reading for a bit."

"Fine by me," Madison said. Molly opened up the book.

" _Chapter 1_ ," she read. " _The Boy Who Lived._ "

"Oh, so that's Harry, right?" Madison said.

"Yeah, I think," Molly said. "This must be about Harry when he was born and stopped Voldemort."

She continued reading. At one point, she started laughing, louder than she had ever laughed in Madison's presence.

"What is it?" Madison asked.

"I just got to the best joke ever," Molly said. "McGonagall just said that people would write books about Harry, and that every child in the world would know his name. Isn't that hilarious?"

"Why?" Madison said.

Molly gestured to the book in her hands. "I literally knew about the Harry Potter books since I was, like, seven. That's what I call pop-cultural osmosis at the finest level, and the very first book _predicted it!_ "

"Oh, yeah," Madison said. "Didn't think of it that way."

Molly giggled, going back to the reading.

They were in there for at least an hour before Ava walked in on them.

"What are you two reading?" she asked. Molly held up the book so that Ava could see, then putting it back in front of her face.

"' _Trevor!' cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle,_ " Molly read. "Remember that - when Stella and Neville ran into each other and fell in the water?"

"That was funny," Ava said. "Molly, you should get to the dining hall - dinner's about to start."

"Sure," Molly said. "Madison, if you want, you can go ahead without me."

"No, thanks," Madison said. "I'll wait for you."

Molly smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem," Madison said. "Just don't go on without me."

"Sure thing," Molly said as she walked out of the bathroom.

"It's so much fun to read these when you know what's going to happen," she told Ava.

"Yeah, well, don't spoil yourself too much," Ava said. "There are some pretty big twists later on, and some characters that you will absolutely abhor."

"Are we _supposed_ to hate them?" Molly asked.

Ava smiled, thinking of a magic quill, pink wool, and plates with intricate pictures of cats. "Definitely."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) I wrote the beginning of this chapter by finding a website with riddles. I then proceeded to tell all my friends the riddles, getting no work done on the chapter.**

 **2) I wanted to add in a character that Molly loved that contradicted a lot of her beliefs - kind of like if Hermione and Luna's relationship was a little more friendly. I demonstrated that through their conversation about Madison's death.**

 **3) Madison's inspiration helped me with the details of her backstory, including the justification for her having never read the Harry Potter books. In reality, she just watched the movies and never got around to reading the books. Also, and this is pointing out something that most people probably know - ABC Family, or "Freeform" as it's now known, loves its Harry Potter weekends.**

 **4) I already have some plans for Molly's interactions with the character referenced by Ava, and I'm very excited to show it to you once we get to _Order of the Phoenix_.**

 **5) Just like the Percy Jackson example at the end of _Philosopher's Stone_ , the _To Kill a Mockingbird_ timing is based on when I actually read the book.**

 **6) I thought that joke in Chapter 1 of _Philosopher's Stone_ was the funniest thing ever.**

 **7) Spoiler alert for _The Burning Maze_ , the new Percy Jackson book:**

 **OH MY GOD IT WAS JASON IT WAS JASON WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE JASON AND THEN THERE WAS PIPER'S REACTION AND _OH MY GOD LEO LEARNING THAT JASON WAS DEAD_**

 **Hey, at least Leo and/or Estelle didn't die.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	19. Proof that Hogwarts Is Real

**Hi everybody! This is one of my favorite chapters that I've written so far, so I hope you enjoy. It's very funny, which is probably why it was so hard to write. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 19_**

 ** _Proof that Hogwarts is Real_**

"' _Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house?' said Hermione.  
_ ' _I'd — I'd think I'd gone mad,' said Harry, 'or I'd think there was some Dark Magic going on —'  
_ ' _Exactly! You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time... Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!'"_

The eight time-travelers were huddled together in the bathroom, looking at the reply that Stella had gotten the year before from Lin.

"I still don't get it," Stella said. "I mean, he says, ' _I finally have proof that Hogwarts is real_ ,' which is impossible, which means...either this is him from the future - but that's also impossible, because he doesn't know about what I meant by 'his work' - or it's whoever sent us here, or someone working for them. But that's our only clue...CAN SOMEBODY JUST TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Stella," Jonah said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Calm down before you start cursing and get us into trouble."

She laughed - a nervous laugh, prolonging the situation - and shook her head.

"So, then, what do we do?" she said. "What other clues might we have?"

"Well, I might have something," Molly said. Carefully, she took out a single blonde hair from her pocket.

"I found this on my suitcase when we got into the castle," Molly said. "Our time-traveling culprit has to be blonde."

"So...that isn't any of us - except maybe me, but it looks too light to be my hair," Zoë said. "So...is it Hannah? Lavender?"

"Too dark to be Lavender or Hannah," Ava said. "Maybe...Luna?"

" _Not_ Luna," Mackenzie said. "Neville? He's blonde here -"

"Too long to be Neville," Stella said, almost defensively. "Romilda?"

"Romilda wouldn't have the self-awareness to do something like this," Beatrix said. "Maybe it's not a student?"

"Well, whoever it is, it has to be someone who's alive in the future - so it can't be Lavender, anyway," Mackenzie pointed out.

"Wait...Lavender dies?" Molly asked, her eyes wide.

"Oh, great, here we go," Jonah said. "Thanks for spoiling her - now we'll never hear the end of it."

" _Lavender dies?_ " Molly repeated.

"Only in the movies," Stella said. "She does get hurt in the books, but it isn't clear if she dies -"

"Oh, God, oh, God, oh, _God_!" Molly said. "I'm _never_ going to be able to look at her the same way again - she _dies_?"

Mackenzie groaned. "Sorry, Molly," she said. "Maybe she _won't_ die."

"Anyway, maybe it's someone else," Madison pointed out. "Maybe it's Draco."

"And he has that Time-Turner from the play-that-must-not-be-named," Stella pointed out. She shivered. "God, I can't believe I actually _referenced_ that."

"Oh, is that the Cursed Child thing that came out?" Molly asked.

" _Don't even mention its name_ ," Stella said. "It's the stupidest thing ever."

Molly's eyes widened. "I can't believe it. You actually don't like a Harry Potter book."

"It's the script of a play, it's not written by her, and Cedric Diggory becomes a Death Eater," she said. "There's no way it actually pertains to the series."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

She shrugged. "I don't _want_ it to."

"Fair enough," Molly said. "So then who could it be?"

The room was silent. All of the options had been exhausted.

"Are there _any_ other blonde kids in the school?" Madison said. "Even in Cursed Child?"

"Well, there's Delphi," Stella said. "But if we're dealing with her…" She shivered.

"What?" Molly asked. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's the daughter of Voldemort," Stella said. "She uses time travel to save her dad, and she isn't willing to get kids killed along the way - she even uses the Killing Curse on one of them."

"That sounds pretty accurate," Madison said. "I mean, look at me."

Ava snickered.

"Well, I was actually sad after that," Stella pointed out. "That was the most miserable part of my life - everyone hated Jonah, nobody wanted to hang out with Hufflepuffs, and Draco tried to steal Usnavi. And he would have, if it hadn't been for whatever that invisible thing was -"

"Oh, uh…" Madison stammered. "That was Opa."

Stella was shocked. "And you didn't reveal yourself to me?"

"I was waiting," Madison said. "Say what you will about me, but I definitely have a flair for the dramatic."

"Well, you still revealed Opa to Draco before you revealed her to me," Stella said. "I'm not sure I can forgive that."

"Please do," Madison said.

Stella rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine," she said, pretending to be annoyed. "I could never stay mad at you."

Madison smiled.

Without any warning, Ava gasped, as though she had an idea. "Guys, I just realized something -"

Suddenly, someone burst into the bathroom - a flash of red hair - a prefect's badge -

"Percy - what are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" Beatrix asked.

"I heard Jonah's voice and I had to investigate," Percy said, his blue eyes glaring at Jonah. "What is he doing in the girls' bathroom?"

"I had to go, and the boys' was full," Jonah said. "Plus, I don't think I want Madison to go into the _boys'_ bathroom, and I wanted to say hi to her."

"Well, we can't be too careful - misbehavior has been on the rise recently, especially in Gryffindor House. I don't think Harry and Ron's behavior has been helping matters," Percy explained.

"Oh, by the way, have you talked to either of them since the first?" Mackenzie asked.

Molly shook her head. "They haven't tried, and I don't want to try. I mean, I kinda feel bad, but at the same time, they flew a flying Ford Anglia to Hogwarts. They probably deserve it."

"They definitely deserve it," Percy agreed. "Did you see the Howler that Mum sent Ron? My reputation hasn't been the same since."

Out of the corner of her eye, Molly could see Stella cringing at Percy.

"Well, we should be heading out anyway," Ava said. "And so should you."

Percy nodded and turned to leave. "See you soon."

He went out the door. As soon as he was a safe distance away, the group turned back to each other.

"You know, if you start agreeing with Percival Ignatius Weasley on things, that's not a good sign," Stella said.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Molly said. "He's nice."

Stella rolled her eyes. Sometimes keeping secrets could be really hard.

"So what was your realization, Ava?" Madison asked, changing the subject.

"The letters," Ava said. "The letters we got from Harry, back when we were first invited to Hogwarts. We need to check them and see if the handwriting is the same as Lin's letter - if it is, then we know for sure that this person is the person who sent us to Hogwarts."

"I have mine on me," Beatrix said, pulling the old, fading parchment out of her pocket. "I pinch myself every day reading it."

She looked at Harry's letter, then Lin's.

"She's right," Beatrix confirmed. "They're the same. This person doesn't have any accomplices that we know of - but they already have a body count of one -"

"Two if it's Delphi," Stella interjected. "God, why do I know that?"

"- and they've nearly been able to change the timeline in some major ways. And if there's anything we don't want, it's a change to the timeline."

"Would that be bad?" Mackenzie asked.

"Have you seen _Meet the Robinsons_?" Molly asked.

Mackenzie nodded in understanding. "So it would be bad," she concluded.

"Yep," Molly said. "We don't want to change the timeline anymore."

"But wait…" Mackenzie said. "You have the books with you this year."

Molly nodded.

"What if, like, Hermione sees the books - or Lavender, or Katie Bell, or any of them - and they learn about their future? Couldn't they try to prevent it, and wouldn't they end up changing the future?"

Molly's eyes widened. "Oh, God," she said. "They could. What should I do?"

"Just keep them in your room - don't read them in the common room or at lunch or anything," Stella suggested. "Be very prudent."

"Definitely," Molly said. "But what if one of them _does_ read the books?"

"Then make sure they know not to tell anyone else about them," Zoë said. "If this spreads, we could have a real crisis on our hands."

"And we have to be careful where we talk," Beatrix said. "Stay away from beetles."

Stella, Zoë, Ava, and Jonah started to laugh. Molly raised an eyebrow.

"What do beetles have to do with anything?" she asked.

"Don't say anything," Jonah said, looking over at Mackenzie sternly.

Mackenzie shrugged. "I don't know what beetles mean, either."

"Neither do I," Madison interjected.

"You'll understand as soon as you get to book 4," Stella explained.

"That's _Goblet of Fire_ ," Ava said.

"Wait…" Madison said. "But I've seen _Goblet of Fire_."

"For some reason, she's only barely in the movie," Zoë said. "She's even worse in the book."

"This is...Fleur? Hermione?"

"Rita."

Madison's eyes widened. "How could _she_ get any worse?"

"Beetles," Zoë said, giggling.

* * *

After the others left, Madison stayed behind in the bathroom. She sat down - well, as much as she could, being a ghost - on the bathroom floor.

"Opa!" she called.

The owl flew through one of the bathroom stall doors and hovered on Madison's lap. Madison smiled and pretended to pet her friend.

She sighed. Being a ghost could be boring.

Time passed, and eventually the sky outside grew dark. Madison was still pretending to pet Opa when she heard footsteps enter the room.

She straightened herself. "Who's there?" she asked tentatively.

A young girl walked into the room.

"Ginny?" Madison asked. "Are you okay?"

Ginny didn't answer her, instead walking to the center of the room, near a drinking fountain with a carving of a snake on it.

"Oh, God," Madison said, realizing what was happening. She should've known; Ava had told her that Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party was today, and "You know what that means," Ava had said. As quickly as she could, she closed her eyes.

A hissing - _Open up_ \- and then an explosion, so loud that Madison was tempted to open her eyes - although she knew better. She didn't move until the sound of footsteps stopped, and even then, she didn't let herself see the rest of the world.

But she could hear an ominous, hissing noise that chilled her.

" _Come...come to me...let me rip you...let me tear you...let me kill you…_ "

The words - they sounded familiar - was that the Basilisk? If so, how could Madison, a Hufflepuff with no Horcruxes in her (at least, any that she knew of), understand Parseltongue?

The sound of slithering recommenced as the Basilisk reentered the bathroom, the sound of Ginny's footsteps next to it. Eventually, the noise faded, and Madison could hear the sound of something hitting the ground.

"Where am I?" a quiet, young voice said. _Ginny_ , Madison thought. _Tom Riddle must be gone._

She opened her eyes a crack. The fountain was right where it had always been - as though there had never been an explosion. Ginny was kneeling in front of it, the worn-down, brown-leather-covered diary in her hands.

"Ginny?" Madison asked quietly. "Are you alright?"

Ginny jumped, startled. "Oh," she said. "I didn't realize you were there."

"You're in the girls' bathroom," Madison explained. "You don't have anything to be afraid of."

Ginny looked down at her hands - more specifically, the diary in them. "I was writing in this - and then everything went black - and then I was here. Do you think - do you think that this thing is dangerous?"

"I don't know," Madison lied. "Try it again in a few days - as a test of sorts."

"Okay," Ginny said. "Thanks."

"No problem," Madison said.

"By the way, where's Opa?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, she's -" Madison started. She turned to where she had last seen her owl - but Opa wasn't there.

"Opa?" Madison called. "Opa?"

Suddenly, Madison heard Ginny gasp. She looked to the corner of the bathroom, where she could see what looked like stone - the size of a human head, but with no body attached, with two somethings jutting out of the sides -

" _OPA!_ " Madison cried.

For that was what the stone was. It was Opa.

Petrified.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading the chapter! Here are the behind-the-magic fun facts about this part of the story:**

 **1) Stella's inspiration absolutely _loathes_ Cursed Child, but she knows everything about it so she can hate those parts even more. I thought that would be a funny thing to include in the story.**

 **2) If you haven't seen _Meet the Robinsons_ , it's SUCH a good movie, and you need to watch it. It's another movie that deals with the consequences of time-travel, and it's hilarious along the way.**

 **3) The conversation about someone in Gryffindor House reading a part of the book that spoils their fate...In the words of AVPM Severus Snape, _"Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?"_**

 **4) This chapter is also the start of a pretty important plot involving Madison, Ginny, and the diary...**

 **5) We get a lot more speculation about the mysterious person who is sending the time travelers back and forth. My offer still stands; if you have any guesses, feel free to send me a PM with the subject line "Shine On Rainy Day Prediction."**

 **6) I spoiled myself for a lot of the deaths in the Harry Potter books, but I couldn't have myself be spoiled for all of them in the story. So I decided to keep it at Lavender.**

 **7) Molly's conversation with Percy is one of my favorite things I've written for the story - besides an exchange between Lockhart and Snape in an upcoming chapter. Stay tuned!**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	20. Rock Bottom

**Hello everybody! I just got back from seeing _The Crimes of Grindelwald_ with Madison's inspiration, and I was inspired to put out another chapter! Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 20:_**

 ** _Rock Bottom_**

" _Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he spotted Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.  
_ ' _My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?' he shrieked.  
_ _And his popping eyes fell on Harry.  
_ 'You!' _he shrieked. '_ You! _You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll -'"_

"Why does this always happen to you?" Molly said as she and the other time-travelers stood in a huddle around Opa's Petrified body.

"I don't know," Madison said. "I mean, I feel like I'm a magnet for everything bad that happens in this school. First I'm killed by Voldemort's slave, then my pet gets Petrified - what's next? I pull a Harry Potter and start fainting at the Dementors?"

"What are Dementors?" Molly asked.

"Never mind," Madison said. "The point is, how do we fix it?"

"I think we just have to wait for the Mandrakes, just like in the books," Zoë said.

"Wait - we can use Mandrakes?" Molly asked. "Those disgusting things that scream so loudly they can kill you?"

"Yep," Zoë said.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Molly said. "Let's go ask Professor Sprout!"

"Not so fast," Stella said. "The Mandrakes aren't fully grown yet. They can't help us."

"Oh," Molly said, downcast.

"Oh, and there was something else," Madison said. "Molly - have you gotten to the part about Parseltongue yet?"

"I'm still on the first book," Molly said. "I had to stop after they mentioned the twins hitting Voldemort with snowballs."

"Why would you stop there?" Jonah said. "That's, like, the best part!"

Molly rolled her eyes, pointing to Madison.

"Oh," Jonah said. "Right."

"Well, anyway," Madison interjected, "there are people in the Harry Potter universe who can talk to snakes - they're called Parselmouths, and they speak the language called Parseltongue. Usually, only heirs of the founder of Slytherin can do it - well, so can Harry, but that's because of other circumstances that you'll learn in due time. But the point is, last night I was in the bathroom when I heard this hissing noise - and I could understand it."

"What?" Molly said, shocked. "You're a Parselmouth?"

Madison nodded grimly.

"How is that even possible?" Molly asked. "You're not a Slytherin - you're not even _close_ to being one."

"I know," Madison said. "I can't come up with a sneaky plan to save my life - literally. So then why can I understand Parseltongue?"

"Maybe there's some sort of connection to the diary?" Ava pondered.

"Wait - there's a diary involved?" Molly asked.

"Will you read the books already?" Stella said. "Just finish Philosopher's Stone and move on to Chamber of Secrets. Then you'll understand."

"I told you," Molly said. "I can't get past where Madison's death should be. I probably won't be able to get past the detention scene. By the way, I still don't know why Mackenzie said that thing about detention. Now that first year has come and gone, will you please explain that?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember that now," Mackenzie said. "In the books, Harry, Hermione, Draco, and _Neville_ get detention in the Forbidden Forest, but in the movies, Harry, Hermione, Draco, and _Ron_ get detention. I guess it turned out to be Harry, Hermione, Draco, and _Stella_."

"It was either that or Neville," Stella said. "It all worked out in the end."

"What was the Forbidden Forest like?" Molly asked.

"Don't believe the hype," Stella responded. "Yeah, it's dangerous, but nothing a _Protego_ or two can't handle."

" _Protego_?" Molly asked. "Is that a spell?"

Stella sighed. "Just read the books. Madison's fine. You didn't have detention. Jonah's been acquitted. The world is perfect the way it is."

Molly shrugged. "Maybe later."

Stella rolled her eyes. "I'm getting McGonagall."

She walked out of the room, screams of "You've murdered my cat!" echoing through the halls.

"And there's Filch, right on schedule," Beatrix said.

"What happened with Filch?" Molly asked.

"Mrs. Norris got Petrified, too," Ava explained.

"Oh, goodness," Molly said. "Filch is going to be furious."

"There's a reason he's screaming at Harry," Jonah said.

"Wait - he's screaming at Harry?" Molly asked. When nobody responded, she headed toward the door with a conflicted look on her face. "I'll be right back."

She left the room, leaving the others standing around Opa's Petrified body.

"Okay, who's going to go out there and stop her?" Jonah said.

Nobody answered.

"Perfect," he said. "Neither am I. Come on, everybody."

In unison, the group headed to the door, Zoë picking up Opa on the way out.

* * *

To Molly's dismay, by the time she arrived at the scene, Harry and Filch had gone to Dumbledore's office already. "It's a shame," she told Mackenzie as she stormed back to the Gryffindor common room. "I was really going to tell them off this time."

"Are you sure that's what you wanted to do?" Mackenzie said.

Molly nodded. "They've caused nothing but trouble since they got here this year. My ears are still bleeding from Mrs. Weasley's Howler a few weeks ago."

"I know," Mackenzie said. "But maybe it's been long enough since the car thing. Everyone deserves a second chance eventually."

"But then how do you explain this?" Molly asked. "Mrs. Norris _and_ Opa Petrified, on the same day? And Harry just _happens_ to be at the scene of the crime?"

"Just ignore the whole _Madison's dead_ thing and _read the books already_ ," Mackenzie said. "They'll give you all the answers."

"Have you even read the books?" Molly asked.

The hall fell into an awkward silence.

"That's what I thought," Molly said. "Maybe I will read the books. Maybe I will take the advice that you haven't even followed. But heed my words: unless you can prove to me that Harry is innocent, I will not speak a single kind word to him until I die. And as soon as we're both in wherever we go after death, I will be giving him the longest talking-to he's ever heard."

"Unless he's proven innocent," Mackenzie clarified.

"Of course," Molly said, as though it was obvious.

By then, they had arrived at the Gryffindor common room. "Wattlebird," Molly said angrily.

"Well, you don't have to have such an _attitude_ about it," the Fat Lady said as her painting opened. Molly held the door for Mackenzie before walking in and collapsing on one of the plush red chairs.

"I'm just going to nap here for a bit, if you don't mind," she said.

Mackenzie smiled. "Sure thing, Sleeping Beauty," she said, rolling her eyes as she went up to her room.

* * *

It was less than a week later that Ginny visited the bathroom again. Madison could still hear Ginny coaxing the Basilisk in Parseltongue, and she still didn't know why.

After the Basilisk returned to the Chamber, Madison could hear Ginny say, "Oh, God...it happened again…"

"Ginny?" Madison said, opening her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Suddenly, a flat, brown object flew through the air, directly through Madison's chest. The diary.

"You take it!" Ginny screamed. She was crying. "I don't want it anymore!"

Madison was taken aback. She knew how dangerous the diary was, how quickly it could possess anyone...but maybe if she tried it out, she could figure out why she could understand Parseltongue…

"Ginny, I have a spell I want to teach you," Madison said. "I can't use the diary if I'm not solid."

Ginny turned to Madison, her eyes glassy with tears. "H-how do I do that?" she sniffled.

"Just point your wand at me and say ' _Deposio Spiritus_ ,'" Madison explained.

Ginny nodded, drawing her wand. " _Deposio Spiritus_ ,'" she said. Madison could feel the transformation take place; her feet on the ground, she walked over to the diary.

"Thank you, Ginny," Madison said, picking it up. "You should get back to the Gryffindor common room before anyone sees you."

"You won't...tell anyone, right?"

"Of course not," Madison said.

Slowly, Ginny stood up and walked to the door. "Goodbye, Madison," she said.

Madison smiled. "Goodbye, Ginny."

As soon as Ginny left the room, Madison opened the diary. She pointed her wand to the door. " _Accio Quill and Ink_ ," she said.

It only took a few seconds for the bathroom door to open for a quill pen and an ink jar to float through it. Madison grabbed them from the air and sat on the floor.

" _I'm only writing because I want to know why I can speak Parseltongue; if you even try to possess me, I will conjure up some Fiendfyre like that_ ," she wrote, snapping her fingers afterward for emphasis.

After a few seconds, writing appeared.

" _You Mudbloods are quite spunky."_

" _Don't call me a Mudblood,"_ Madison wrote.

" _Or you'll conjure up some Fiendfyre?"_

" _Exactly."_

" _I can't tell you why you're a Parselmouth; to be honest, I don't know myself."_

" _And don't you tell me that you can show me instead. That's how you got Ginny, and that's how you'll get Harry."_

" _I get the honor of talking to Harry Potter?"_

" _I've written too much. My point is that I know you're Tom Riddle, so get out of the diary already. Or is that just in the movies?"_

" _What's a movie?"_

" _Never mind. Just come out already."_

" _I can't unless I've possessed someone."_

" _Is there any other way I can talk to you face to face?"_

" _We can both be in a flashback together. But then I can't Petrify anyone."_

" _That sounds alright to me."_

" _Oh, darn."_

The book lit up, and Madison dived in headfirst. When she hit the ground, she had turned so that she was on her feet again.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"The night you died," a voice said. Madison jumped and turned to see a boy, a little older than her. He was handsome, but in a devilish way, with dark hair and eyes and a sweet yet foreboding smile.

Madison looked around. "This is Quirrell's classroom," she said. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," Tom Riddle admitted. "You wanted to talk, so I obliged."

"Why can I speak Parseltongue?" Madison asked. "Tell me!"

"I don't know," Tom admitted. "You're a Mudblood, as far as I know. You have no blood in your veins that came from Salazar Slytherin."

"But neither does Harry, and he can speak Parseltongue."

"Harry Potter is a...special case," Tom said. "But I can assure you that you do not have a Horcrux inside of you, and even if you did, it would've been destroyed...right about now."

Madison turned to see Quirrell standing on the other side of the classroom, pointing his wand at Jonah, who in turn was pointing his wand at Madison. Opa lay at Madison's feet, dead.

"Why are you doing this?" the flashback version of Madison said. "You're hurting him!"

"But it will all be over in a second for him if you don't fight," Quirrell said. "You've lost - just give up."

The past version of Madison paused for a second, then looked at Quirrell defiantly.

"Never," she said, at the same time that the present-day Madison did.

"Have it your way, then," Quirrell said, turning his focus to Jonah.

" _Avada Kedavra,_ " Jonah said, a green bolt flashing from his wand and hitting Madison square in the chest. The present-day Madison cringed as her former self was flung across the room, landing on the ground with a _thump_.

"It's interesting to see it from another perspective, is it not?" Tom said.

Madison nodded, still staring at the tableau occurring in front of her.

"So no Horcruxes, then," she said, nervously laughing. "I wish I could see every moment like this - it's like a movie of my life."

"I definitely wish you could see this moment like this," Tom said. Madison, confused, turned - to see Tom, wand in hand, aimed at her throat.

"What are you doing?" Madison said. "You can't kill me."

"I know," Tom said, an evil glint in his eye. "But I can incapacitate you, and I can still hurt each and every one of your precious friends as you watch, helpless." He laughed. "It'll be like a movie of their lives."

"I'll fight you…" Madison said.

"I have no doubt that you won't be able to," Tom said, holding up another wand. Madison's. "It's rather easy to pickpocket a witch when she's distracted."

"What are you going to do with me?" Madison said.

"Well, I won't possess you - or you'd conjure up some Fiendfyre like that," Tom said. "But you'll be working with me from now on. You will do everything I ask, or your friends will be killed. It's almost worse - every deed you do will be done _willingly_."

"No, it won't," Madison said. "You're forcing me to do this."

"Maybe I am," Tom said. "But your friends don't know that. I can do much worse than what I did to your owl."

Madison didn't say anything. She just stood, watching, helpless, with no idea what to do.

Suddenly, the world around her spun away. When Madison could see again, she was back in the bathroom, kneeling in front of the diary.

" _See you soon,_ " Tom Riddle wrote. And then the diary closed.

Madison looked at the diary for a few more minutes, in shock, tears threatening to pour from her eyes. Finally, she put the diary to the side, next to the Petrified form of Opa. She grabbed her wand.

" _Sublimate Spiritus,_ " she said. The wand fell from her hand as she turned back into gas.

"I'm sorry, Opa," she said as she hovered against the wall as though she was sitting down. "I'm so sorry…"

* * *

 **Hi everybody! Thanks for reading this chapter; here are its behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) I feel like I have a part in each chapter that I mention how much I enjoyed writing, but I really enjoyed Madison's conversation with Tom Riddle and the flashback to Madison's death. To be honest, this book was not my favorite to write about, so I felt like I had to find really interesting story arcs to explore, and in doing so, I ended up having fun writing for _Chamber of Secrets_.**

 **2) The "You won't...tell anyone, right?" "Of course not" exchange is taken straight from the way Stephen Colbert opens his "Midnight Confessions" segments on his show. (Also, he hasn't done one of those in a while, and he should. They're hilarious.)**

 **3) Madison's questions about how she can speak Parseltongue will continue for a while, and I have a really cool payoff in mind.**

 **4) I wanted to take a second and explain Mackenzie's "I wonder who's getting detention" comment from Chapter 2, and I really like Stella's unimpressed reaction to the Forbidden Forest.**

 **5) Did anyone notice that I snuck my pen name into the story? I was very proud of that one.**

 **6) Madison's inspiration and I had an interesting conversation about Molly's speech to Mackenzie about Harry and Ron. Madison thought that Mackenzie and the others should tell Molly that Harry and Ron had good intentions when they drove the car to Hogwarts (albeit weird ways of demonstrating those intentions), but then I pointed out Molly's reaction when they spoiled her about Lavender Brown's death. Then Mackenzie said that this wasn't that big a spoiler and it's based on a part of the story that she's already experienced. My response was: "Flawed characters. They make stories interesting."**

 **(Side note: One of the things I was worried about when I decided to write a story with a cast based on me and my friends was that I would end up making the characters too perfect without being unlikable. I've had a lot of fun over the past few years getting to work with my friends to help create accurate portrayals of the eight of us.)**

 **7) Unrelated to the story, but HOW GOOD WAS THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD?! I've only recently gotten into the Harry Potter franchise, so this was the first time I saw a Harry Potter movie in theatres, and it was so much fun! I loved some of the plot twists with Queenie and Jacob, and I can't wait to see how the next movie deals with the revelation about Credence. (And also - Newt and Theseus's interaction right after that wand-ground moment from the trailer was one of my favorite parts - it was just too sweet and emotional!)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	21. Ten Duel Commandments

**Hello everybody! I absolutely loved writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 21:**_

 _ **Ten Duel Commandments**_

"' _They're starting a Dueling Club!' said Seamus. 'First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…'  
_ ' _What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?' said Ron, but he, too, read the sign with interest.  
_ ' _Could be useful,' he said to Harry and Hermione as they went into dinner. 'Shall we go?'"_

"I don't care that Harry and Ron will be there, we _have_ to go to this Dueling Club," Stella said during the time travelers' next bathroom meeting. "This is an iconic scene - plus, there are so many duels in _Hamilton_ , so I can make a ton of references."

"You saw the show once, and the cast album hasn't come out yet," Jonah pointed out. "Did you memorize it or something?"

Stella pulled out a camera - the same one that she had given Madison in first year. "Bootlegs, baby."

Molly's eyes widened. "Stella - that's illegal!"

"I know," she said. "You wanna watch?"

"Of course!" Molly said as she and the others gathered around the camera.

* * *

That night, the group went to the Dueling Club. Molly had solidified Madison so she could leave the bathroom, however temporarily. Moaning Myrtle had complained that she hadn't been solidified too, but Madison told her that Stella would take pictures and video and show her. Apparently they had become friends over summer break; _when you're the only ones in the castle together, and the only other people in the castle are a poltergeist and some extremely partisan ghosts, you either drive each other stir-crazy or you become friends,_ Molly thought.

Lockhart was standing on the Ravenclaw table, brandishing his wand like an épée. "Gather round, everybody! Make sure you can see me!"

Stella rolled her eyes. "Why did I say we should come to this? I forgot how much Lockhart pi-"

"Stella…" Ava said.

"Makes me mad," Stella amended. "He doesn't even use _Sonorus_. He doesn't need to, because he's that boisterous."

"I know," Zoë said. "Just be patient."

Lockhart was still talking, bringing Snape up to the impromptu stage. Snape was sulking, as though he would rather be forced to give out endless points to Harry during Potions class than to be a part of this demonstration.

"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells," Lockhart said. "Neither of us -"

"You're wrong," Stella heckled.

Lockhart turned. "As I was saying -"

"You don't count to three, you count to ten," Stella said.

"Someone's talking, but I can't hear -"

" _SONORUS!_ " Stella shouted into her wand. "You're wrong, Lockhart. You don't count to three in a wizard duel. You count to ten. And there are plenty of other steps that you need to do first."

"Oh, really?" Lockhart said. "Will you demonstrate?"

"Gladly," Stella said. She nodded, and the other seven cast the spell themselves. Stella gave a gesture with her hands, and the group began to sing, rap, beatbox, or whatever they had to do.

" _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine -_ "

"It's the Ten Duel Commandments," Stella sang.

"Number one: the challenge, demand satisfaction," Mackenzie said. "If they apologize, no need for further action."

"Number two: if they don't grab a friend, that's your second - your lieutenant when there's reckoning to be reckoned," Ava rapped.

"Number three: have your seconds meet face to face, negotiate a peace - or negotiate a time and place," said Molly. "This is commonplace, especially between recruits -"

" _Most disputes die and no one shoots_ ," the group sang together. Molly couldn't help but marvel at how good they sounded - she had never thought that her friends had such good voices.

"Number four: if they don't reach a peace, that's alright," sang Jonah. "Time to get your wands and a doctor on sight. You pay them in advance, you treat them with civility; you have them turn around so they can have deniability."

"Five: duel before the sun is in the sky," sang Stella. "Pick a place to die where it's high and dry."

"Number six: leave a note for your next of kin, tell them where you've been," said Zoë. "Pray that hell or heaven lets you in."

"Seven: confess your sins, ready for the moment of adrenaline when you finally face your opponent," Beatrix rapped.

"Number eight: your last chance to negotiate - send in your seconds, see if they can set the record straight," Madison sang.

"Any questions so far?" Stella said.

Lockhart's face was priceless - _thank God Beatrix's owl, Eclipse, is holding the camera,_ Molly thought. "We're good," he said.

"One, two, three!" Stella called to the other time travelers.

"Number nine!" they all sang.

"Look them in the eye, aim no higher, summon all the courage you require," Stella rapped. "Then COUNT!"

" _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, number ten paces, FIRE!_ " the time travelers sang. After a pause that indicated that they had finished, a nervous applause filled the room as they said "Quietus" in unison. Molly couldn't help but notice the abstainers - Lockhart and Snape (obviously), Harry and Ron (Molly couldn't guess why), and a few Slytherins. She also noticed Fred and George hooting and hollering louder than anyone else.

"Well, let's follow your rules," Lockhart said sheepishly once the applause died down. "Severus Snape, I challenge you to a duel."

"And I accept," Snape said, in his usual slow and sinister manner.

"Now we need our seconds," Lockhart said, and then he started to laugh. "That's funny, isn't it? The rule about the seconds is the second rule, that's funny…"

"Idiot," Stella muttered under her breath.

"I choose Harry Potter as my second," Lockhart said. "C'mon up, Harry!"

Harry turned the color of his best friend's hair as he stepped up onto the table. He obviously shared Snape's sentiments about being onstage.

"And I choose Draco Malfoy," Snape said.

"Of course you do," Mackenzie said.

"I like him," Molly said defensively.

"That's because he likes - do you know of any distant relatives named Lily?"

"Um...no," Molly said.

"Don't spoil her," Jonah said. "I don't want to deal with another Lavender Brown incident."

"At this point, who cares?" Mackenzie said. "Snape was in love with Harry's mom, whose last name was Evans. Don't you think there's a reason Snape turns beet-red whenever he calls attendance?"

"What?" Molly said, her eyes widening almost as much as Madison's. "He was in love with -"

"You heard me," Mackenzie said. "Now don't let Harry hear you."

Stella was still walking Lockhart through the steps. Molly asked her what step he was on. "Six," she said. "He's such a dummy."

"I know," Molly said. "I still can't believe Hermione likes him. We had a whole conversation on the train about how cool he was."

"Oh, God," she said. "Hold on, Lockhart's saying something. _No, you don't have to write a Howler. Just confess your sins already._ "

"I don't recognize how perfect I am nearly as much as I should," Lockhart said. "Snape?"

"No," Snape said.

"Okay, Snape is abstaining from the confessing. Seconds? Negotiating time," Lockhart said.

Reluctantly, Harry and Draco moved to the center of the stage. They said something to each other, then Harry turned back to Lockhart. "Duel's still on," he said.

"Alright, so let's clear the way," Lockhart said. "Let's do this. Stella, will you do the honors?"

She nodded. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, number ten paces, FIRE!"

" _Expelliarmus!_ " Snape called out, a red jet of light bursting from his wand. It struck Lockhart's wand, knocking it out of his hand and to the ground.

"Well done, Snape," Lockhart said. "That was a Disarming Charm, very effective. As you can see, my wand is - oh, thank you, Miss Brown - well, now it's back in my hand, but it was knocked out of my hand a few seconds ago. The only downside to such a charm is that it was rather easy to know exactly what Professor Snape was going to do."

Snape looked like he really, _really_ wanted to pull an Aaron Burr and pull out a pistol.

"Well, enough demonstrating! Let's pair you up and get you dueling!" Lockhart said, being wise for the first time in his life and stopping his criticism of Snape's technique.

"Okay, we can go now," Stella said. "We made the reference, we don't have to stay any longer. Madison, you got that video for Moaning Myrtle, right?"

"I'm still filming," Madison said, gesturing to Eclipse, who was still holding the camera.

"You can turn that off now," Stella said, smiling. "And make sure Snape doesn't find the camera. It might've picked up Mackenzie's bombshell."

"Alright," Madison said. She looked into the camera. "This is Madison Clark, signing off."

She turned the video off.

* * *

"Wait, Snape and Lily were in _love_?" Moaning Myrtle said as she stared into the screen on Madison's camera.

"Apparently," Molly said. "I didn't know until a few hours ago."

"And you can't tell a soul," Zoë said.

"Otherwise we'd have to hand you over to Slytherin's monster," Beatrix said.

Myrtle gasped. "You wouldn't."

Jonah nodded. "We would."

"Okay, then," Myrtle said. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Well, this was a great night," Mackenzie said.

"I didn't know you could sing," Molly said.

"I've had practice, listening to you night and day," Mackenzie said, trying not to laugh. "What song are you practicing for tonight?"

"I love that song from _Hamilton_ \- you know, the one where Philip dies and Eliza forgives Hamilton for cheating on her with Maria?" Molly said. "'It's Quiet Uptown,' I think it's called?"

"Yeah, I know that one," Mackenzie said.

"I already know it by heart," Molly said.

"Oh, God," Mackenzie said.

* * *

Madison had Molly sneak the diary back to Ginny with a note that read, "Try it once or twice more. I'm sure it's fine." Madison felt extremely guilty for forcing Ginny under the diary's spell once more, but even if Tom hadn't been blackmailing her, the plot needed to advance in order for the future to stay the same.

A few weeks later, during the kind of winter so cold that Madison had to wear her rainbow-patterned unicorn socks with pegasus wings coming out of the sides, Ginny visited the bathroom again. This time, Madison kept her eyes open; she knew that, because of her value to Tom's plan, he wouldn't let her get Petrified. Due to this, Madison was now fully able to realize how amazingly horrid it looked when Ginny was freeing the Basilisk. As soon as Ginny spoke, the drinking fountain exploded, pieces of marble flying everywhere. One piece soared directly through Madison's head; if she had been alive, it would've killed her.

Needless to say, Ginny was unharmed by any of the rubble. Once the dust settled down, a large, blue-green snake could be seen. Its eyes were like headlights; even though it wasn't looking at Madison, she could see beams of light emanating from its head.

"All aboard the Basilisk train," Madison whispered to herself. "Toot toot."

The Basilisk turned toward Madison, and she closed her eyes just in the nick of time. Ginny whispered in its ear, and it spoke to her.

" _I see you have become acquainted with my master,_ " it said in Parseltongue.

" _Unfortunately,_ " Madison responded. " _What do you need me to do?_ "

" _Get a student from your house to come out of their common room,_ " the Basilisk said. " _Ginny can be, like, a creepy child that says something foreboding and confuses the other student. That's where I come in._ "

" _Okay,_ " Madison said. " _Would you like fries with your order, as well?_ "

" _What are fries?_ " the Basilisk said.

" _They're crispy strips of goodness - oh, never mind,_ " Madison said. " _Just - let's get down to business._ "

The Basilisk turned away as Madison muttered "To defeat the Huns" in plain English, so the Basilisk couldn't understand her.

" _What was that?_ " the Basilisk yelled.

" _Nothing_ ," Madison said.

The Basilisk sighed, which sounded like a generic snake hiss. " _Come along._ "

* * *

After Ginny had solidified her and she had put on her socks, Madison burst into the Hufflepuff common room. Thankfully, Justin Finch-Fletchley was sitting on a chair near the fireplace, writing a Potions essay, with a light snowfall gleaming outside.

"Justin - you gotta come into the hallway!" she said.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Why are you solid?"

"No time for questions," she said. "The monster's out there. The one that Petrified Opa and Mrs. Norris - and Colin - it's outside."

"I'm on it," Justin said. He drew his wand, and together, he and Madison burst out of the door to the common room.

When they arrived outside, Madison dove to the side so she could be out of the way. Justin was standing in the doorway when Nearly-Headless Nick arrived.

"I heard a commotion from the kitchens," he said. "What's the cause of all this racket?"

"Madison came in and told me that Slytherin's monster was out here - but I don't see it anywhere," Justin said.

"Me neither," Nick said. "I reckon you should get back into the common room - where you're safe."

"That sounds like a -"

They stopped, and Madison could tell that they had seen Ginny.

" _When Mudbloods have lost all the blood in their souls, only then will the Dark Lord finally be whole…_ " she said.

"What the -" Justin started - his words drowned out by a hissing sound. The two victims hit the ground with the sound of stone hitting stone. Madison cringed when she heard it ringing through the hallway.

" _You happy, Tom?_ " she called out in Parseltongue.

After a pause (probably to get a message from Ginny), the Basilisk replied, " _Very. See you soon._ "

And it slithered down the hallway, Ginny's footsteps following it, leaving Madison alone in the hallway, the two Petrification victims on the ground just a few incriminating feet away. She looked at them with a hard-to-decipher face - perhaps feelings of pity, perhaps feelings of anger. She looked down at her feet, wrapped up in her unicorn socks - disproportionately peppy considering what had just happened.

And then Madison had an idea.

She took the socks off and dropped them on the ground as she ran as fast as she could, to a place where nobody, not even Ginny, could find her.

The seventh floor.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts.**

 **1) Obviously, a big portion of this chapter was a reference to the song "Ten Duel Commandments" from _Hamilton_. I would assume that in this version of the timeline, Draco shoots at Harry at 7.**

 **2) Lockhart and Snape's sin-confessing is one of my favorite things I've ever written. Like, ever.**

 **3) Ginny's entranced line to Justin and Nick is on the opposite side of the "favorite" spectrum. Like, I love it, but it fits in a different category of writing than the sin-confessing.**

 **4) The plot point with Madison, the socks, and the seventh floor (which...just think about what very important room might be required for Madison on the seventh floor) was Madison's inspiration's idea, as was the "All aboard the Basilisk train" line.**

 **5) I actually did cover "It's Quiet Uptown" from _Hamilton_ right after I listened to the album for the first time! The cover can be viewed on my website, which is in my bio.**

 **6) I could go on a whole rant about how awesome Broadway bootlegs are, but all I will say is this: No, Stella's inspiration did not record a _Hamilton_ bootleg. Yes, she loves _Hamilton_ bootlegs.**

 **7) Madison's original reasoning for wanting her character to die was so that she could be really good friends with Moaning Myrtle. While the character eventually developed into more than that, I definitely wanted to hint at the origins of Madison's role throughout the narrative.**

 **8) I just love the image of Fred and George hearing this insane song in the middle of a dueling club, and just absolutely adoring it. Fred and George always seem like they would have the best reactions to anything that happens in the school.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	22. Seriously Evil Wizard Coming Through

**Hi everybody! This was one of my favorite chapters to write - it's the culmination of a lot of previous chapters. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 22:**_

 _ **Seriously Evil Wizard Coming Through**_

" _He turned to squint at what he'd fallen over and felt as though his stomach had dissolved.  
_ _Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling."_

The snow that had begun the night before had begun to pound down, cancelling the Herbology classes for the day. Harry was going to see the Hufflepuffs and explain something that had happened after the time-travellers had left the Duelling Club. Molly decided that today would be a good time to get some more reading done on the Harry Potter books.

"Madison?" she said as she entered the girls' bathroom, _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_ in hand.

There was no response.

"Madison, are you in here?"

No response.

Molly waited a second more to see if her friend would reveal herself, to no avail. "I'll catch you up on what I'm reading," she called out to the emptiness.

A few minutes later, she arrived back at the common room and sat down near the fireplace. Snow was pelting against the window, the fire was roaring - it was the perfect picture, the kind of thing you'd see in a Christmas card.

But there was a distinct feeling in the air, the kind that can only be felt intuitively, that something was wrong.

Madison had never left the bathroom without the others, as far as Molly knew. She would always be there with some funny comment or warm smile, or just a willingness to do literally anything for the people she cared for. She would never leave the bathroom - not with Opa gone, not with everything that had gone wrong so far.

She had finished reading _Philosopher's Stone_ when Harry came in.

"It's Justin," he said. "He's been Petrified."

Molly's eyes widened. "What?" she said, shocked. It was the first time she'd talked to him since the day she'd yelled at him and Ron about the flying car.

Harry nodded. "Him _and_ Nearly Headless Nick. And when I was at the scene of the crime, the only thing I could find...was these."

He held up a pair of socks. They were all the colors of the rainbow, with unicorns printed on them and pegasus wings coming out from the sides.

"Madison's unicorn socks," Molly said. "And I didn't see her in the bathroom this morning...which means…"

"Madison's working with Draco to petrify everyone," Harry said confidently, as though he knew he'd won.

"Wait - how do you know that Draco's involved?" Molly said.

Suddenly, Hermione burst into the room. "Are you telling Molly that stupid theory about Draco?" she said.

"No," Harry said, running to the opposite side of the room. "I know it's a stupid theory that nobody should ever look into, and besides, why would I talk to Molly anyway; she probably still hates my guts after the incident on the first day of school."

He said all this in one, maybe two breaths.

"That's fine," Hermione said. "It's been a big day so far - you should get some rest."

Harry nodded, almost too fast. "That's a good idea, Hermione."

He sprinted up the stairs to his room.

Hermione looked over at Molly, noticing the socks in her hand. "Are those…"

"Madison's," she said. "Harry said he found them at the place where Justin and Nick were Petrified."

Hermione looked at the socks, then back at Molly. "Could I...possibly have those?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Molly said, handing them over. Hermione smiled.

"Oh, by the way," she said, "the car thing? That was an idiotic thing to do...but don't get too worked up about it. He really is a good kid, deep down, and he's trying to do the right thing."

Before Molly could process anything, Hermione ran out of the room. She stayed still in the chair for a few seconds. "Well," she said to herself, "now would be a good time to start reading _Chamber of Secrets_."

She pulled out the book and began to read.

* * *

It was the next morning by the time that Madison had finally maneuvered the sliding staircases and mystery doors to arrive at the seventh floor. _At least this part of Hogwarts looks like it did in the movies,_ she thought to herself.

She stood in front of where she knew the door to the Room of Requirement should be. _I need an entertaining place where I can hide out for a bit_ , she thought, hoping that the Room could hear.

The door formed in the wall, and she ran in before anyone could see her.

The Room had transformed itself into a beautiful foyer, with a pile of games and books in the corner. On a table, a handheld mirror was positioned next to a potted rose and a watering can.

Madison walked over to the mirror. Next to it was a note - presumably from the Room. _To see when you're safe,_ it read. _The rose is a hint_.

 _A rose_...Madison thought. _A rose and a mirror - oh my God, the Room knows about Beauty and the Beast._

She picked up the mirror. "Show me the diary."

The mirror lit up in green sparks. When they cleared, she saw Ginny writing, in a trance, in the diary and could barely make out the correspondence.

 _It worked like a charm - but I overheard Molly saying that Madison's not in the bathroom._

 **Go on.**

 _And she left her socks at the scene of the crime._

 **Oh, that's not good.**

 _What does it mean?_

 **She's trying to hide from us. And she's clueing everyone else in that she's involved in the plot.**

 _So what do we do?_

 **We have to Petrify somebody she's friends with. Then she'll come out of hiding.**

 _What about Molly?_

Madison's eyes widened. She knew she needed to help her friend, but if she came out of the Room, she knew she'd become a slave of the diary again. It was either hiding out until everything blew over or forcing herself into the battle.

It was the kind of choice that should've been hard to make, but deep down, Madison knew exactly what she had to do. After all, what other choice did she have?

Madison looked around the Room. "Well, I have to go," she said. "But thanks for everything. And nice job knowing what _Beauty and the Beast_ is. You're really up to date on Muggle movies."

A door opened up in the wall of the Room, and Madison walked out.

* * *

For some reason, it took a while for Molly to get into _Chamber of Secrets_. It was hard for her to read about Harry and Ron's adventure with the flying car, knowing how she had blown up at them. But after a few weeks, she got past the part and could continue reading.

Maybe everything would be alright after all.

* * *

Madison tried to stay as close to the Room of Requirement as she could. If something happened and she needed to hide out, she had a place to go. So far, she hadn't run into Ginny at all.

Maybe everything would be alright after all.

* * *

And then, all of a sudden, everything became very wrong.

* * *

Molly was reading _Chamber of Secrets_ in the hallway when she saw Ginny walking by. Her red hair, normally kept straight and tidy, was tangled and unkempt. Her Gryffindor tie was draped around her neck haphazardly, and her robes were wrinkled and dirty.

"Ginny?" Molly asked. "Are you alright?"

Ginny didn't answer, continuing to walk. She walked past Harry, Ron, and Hermione without even a word.

"Ginny?" Molly asked, more suspicious this time. "What are you up to?"

Ginny kept on walking silently down the staircase. Suddenly, Harry let out a shout, causing Molly and the others to jump a bit. Molly couldn't help but notice how nonplussed Ginny was by Harry's shout.

"The voice!" he cried out. "I just heard it again - didn't you?"

"Nope," Molly said matter-of-factly. Hermione clapped her hand to her forehead.

"Harry -" she said. "I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

"I'll go, too," Molly said. "I need to know what's going on with Madison."

She followed Hermione, the two bookworms sprinting up the stairs.

"By the way, how are your grades going?" Molly asked.

"Good," Hermione said. "Obviously I'm not the best in Potions, but I'm making up for that with my Dark Arts grade."

"That's weird, because I'm exactly the opposite," Molly said. "I'm doing well in Potions, but my Dark Arts grade is terrible."

"Really?" Hermione said. "That surprises me. Lockhart's always given me good grades."

Before Hermione could say another word about Lockhart, the two had arrived at the library, out of breath.

Hermione raced to the back of the library, where she pulled out a piece of paper from a random book. "I found this page loose in the Potions book that I brewed the Polyjuice Potion from. I hid it from the boys - somebody must've snuck it into the Restricted Section. To hide it, I guess."

"What's it about?" Molly asked.

"A magical creature called the Basilisk," Hermione explained. "Take a look."

Molly looked at the passage on the torn-out page. "Oh my God," she said. "This is it. This is the monster that's Petrifying all the students."

"But how is it getting around the school? And what does Madison have to do with all of this?"

"I don't -"

And suddenly, everything clicked in Molly's head. The bathroom. Madison. Opa being Petrified - it all came together -

"The pipes," Molly said. "It's gotta be going through the pipes, and I think Madison might be behind it somehow. Maybe - maybe she's being forced to do it by someone."

"But who?" Hermione said. Suddenly, something clicked in her head. "Wait - Harry was telling me about this diary that he found, and when he wrote in it, this kid named Tom Riddle wrote back. Do you think -"

"Somebody has the diary, and Tom Riddle's controlling them with it," Molly said. "And Madison's being blackmailed by them, and so she decided to leave her _socks_ at the scene of the crime so that we'd pick up on her scent."

"But then who's Tom controlling?" Hermione asked. "We know it's gotta be someone from Gryffindor, but -"

Molly remembered Ginny, walking down the hallway, not even paying attention when Harry could hear the noises. "It's Ginny," Molly said. "Tom Riddle is putting her in a trance through the diary. But then why have we never heard of Tom Riddle before?"

"Wait," Hermione said. "Maybe Tom didn't want people to know him as Tom Riddle. Maybe -"

"- he created a name for himself, a name that the whole Wizarding World would know -"

"- someone who could speak Parseltongue, the Heir of Slytherin -"

They looked at each other and spoke in unison:

"Voldemort."

* * *

Madison was hanging in the bathroom when Ginny burst in. Her eyes were glazed over, and Madison knew she had been entranced by Tom.

"Where have you BEEN?" Ginny growled. "You've been gone for months!"

"It's a long -" Madison started, but before she could say another word, Ginny drew her wand.

" _Deposio Spiritus!_ "

Madison fell to the ground without a hair of grace. "What are you going to do with me?" she said as Ginny stood over her.

"Exactly what we've been doing with you," Ginny said, a wicked grin on her face. She started to speak in Parseltongue - " _Open._ "

The sink burst open. Madison grabbed her wand from the floor and screamed, " _Protego!_ " Almost instantly, a shield of magic formed around her, and just in time - a piece of sink large enough to decapitate someone bounced off the shield right after Madison cast the spell.

She closed her eyes as the Basilisk emerged from the Chamber, slithering towards the door. " _Come_ ," it said in Parseltongue.

" _You're not hurting Molly - not on my watch_ ," Madison said, trying to feign bravery.

" _She knows too much,_ " the Basilisk said. " _She must be incapacitated - or do you want to be next?_ "

Madison, trying not to cry, shook her head. " _Let's get this over with_."

* * *

Hermione had written the word "pipes" on the page from the book, and she and Molly were about to try and find Harry and Ron when a girl ran into the library. She wore a Ravenclaw tie and had a panicked expression on her face.

"Penelope," Hermione said, recognizing the Ravenclaw prefect. "What's wrong?"

"The monster," she said. "It's in the hallway. I was just able to get away in time."

"Thank goodness," Molly said. "We know what the monster is - we just need to inform someone."

"But how do we get out of the library without being Petrified?" Penelope asked.

Molly looked around the library, noticing a small, handheld mirror that somebody had left on a shelf. "This," Molly said, running over and grabbing the mirror. "Hermione, you get the paper."

"Sure thing," Hermione said, grabbing the paper and holding onto it for dear life.

"Don't look anywhere else except in the mirror," Molly said. "If we get Petrified, it won't be permanent."

Penelope grabbed onto Molly's shoulder, and Hermione held Molly's free hand. Both girls' hands were shaking.

"Alright," Molly said, taking in a deep breath. "Let's do this."

* * *

Madison and Ginny were leading the Basilisk through the halls, which were almost empty; the Quidditch game would be starting soon, so many people were already at the field. Somehow, Madison could feel in her gut that the Basilisk was about to come across its intended victim.

She ran ahead of the monster to see if she could find Molly - and so she did, walking with Hermione and Penelope Clearwater while looking through a mirror.

Molly seemed to see something in the mirror. "Madison?"

* * *

"I'm sorry," Madison said, almost mournfully.

"What -" Molly began, until yellow eyes burned into Molly's mind as the world went black.

* * *

Harry was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone.

Harry's heart dropped like a stone.

"This match has been cancelled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver Wood, looking devastated, landed and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

"But, Professor!" he shouted. "We've got to play - the cup - _Gryffindor -"_

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone:

"All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry over to her.

"Potter, I think you'd better come with me..."

Wondering how she could possibly suspect him this time, Harry saw Ron detach himself from the complaining crowd; he came running up to them as they set off toward the castle. To Harry's surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come, too, Weasley..."

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Harry and Ron followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack _..._ a _triple_ attack."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) The entire end of the chapter - the part from Harry's POV - is direct from the original books, other than changing "another double attack" to "a triple attack" to match the scenario.**

 **2) Madison's inspiration suggested that somebody should have unicorn socks two or three chapters ago as a joke, so I decided to work it in as a plot point. A note to all the people who have inspired my characters: you need to watch what you say around me, because I can and will use it as a plot point.**

 **3) In real life, I was about halfway through _Chamber of Secrets_ when I had to stop because of my heavy workload for school. I decided to use my character's Petrification as an in-universe reason for stopping the books (especially because at Hogwarts, the workload dried up because of the Petrification and Ginny's abduction.**

 **4) When I first started working on the story, one of the first ideas I had was for Molly and Hermione to decipher the mystery of the Basilisk together, and then get Petrified. I wrote the scene a few times before figuring out a way that I could involve Molly without selling Hermione's intelligence short.**

 **5) And the piece of the puzzle that allowed me to do that? The piece of paper that Hermione finds in the Restricted Section. That might seem like it comes out of nowhere - but think back to the movies. In _Chamber of Secrets_ , what character is shown, for an extended period of time, without any true payoff, ripping a page out of a book?**

 **Thaaaat's right. Draco just unwittingly saved the day - and he probably hates that he did, too.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	23. Lead Us Out of the Darkness

**Hey everybody! This chapter is the "A Suffering Too Terrible to Name" of _Chamber of Secrets,_ so that's just a little warning about what's to come. Enjoy!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 23:_**

 ** _Lead Us Out of the Darkness_**

" _Harry's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and he and Ron entered...Madam Pomfrey was bending over a sixth-year girl with long, curly hair.  
_ _Harry recognized her as the Ravenclaw they'd accidentally asked for directions to the Slytherin common room. And on the bed next to her was —  
_ ' _Hermione!'"_

Stella had been appointed Hufflepuff Chaser earlier in the year, and she was really looking forward to being beat by Harry Potter when she heard the news that the game had been cancelled.

"Oh, great," she thought to herself as she started to put her broom away. "Of course today's the double attack."

She was walking back to her Common Room when she saw Ginny running through the hallway, sobbing.

"Ginny?" Stella asked, stopping her. "Are you alright?"

Ginny shook her head and fell into Stella, gripping onto her for dear life.

"It's okay, it's okay," Stella said, trying to calm Ginny down. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"No," Ginny whispered quietly through her sobs. "But I can show you."

Stella tried to put on a brave face, recognizing the words from Tom Riddle's diary in the books. "Lead the way."

As quickly as possible, Ginny rushed away, and Stella ran behind her. After a few minutes of running, the two girls arrived at the hospital wing.

Stella tried to mentally prepare herself. _It's just Hermione and Penelope_ , she thought. _They'll be alright as soon as the Mandrakes are ready. They'll just look the same way Opa did._

She walked into the hospital wing to see Harry and Ron looking over one of the beds. _Hermione_ , Stella thought. She walked over to the boys, about to say something, when -

The shine of sun reflecting off glass blinded her for a split second. Stella looked in the direction of the light to see -

"Molly!" she cried, her face falling as the light shone onto it, reflecting off Molly's glasses. "No, no, no…"

She looked at Molly, her face twisted in a confused expression, her eyebrows furrowed. Her entire body was a pale shade of grey, as though she was a statue that had been carved out of the finest stone.

Stella felt the tears begin to trickle, and she prayed that nobody would see as she began to cry. She didn't know what to say at all - the last time it had seemed that a friend of hers had died, she had tried to make an _In the Heights_ reference, but she should've known better than to reference the saddest song in _In the Heights_.

She wished that someone could be next to her, the way Molly had been when they cried over Madison's body together. She wished that someone could share in her pain.

She wished she wasn't alone.

* * *

Mackenzie was in her room - she had never been really interested in Quidditch. She was working on her homework, studying for the looming finals, when she realized that Molly had never come back from wherever she was.

"It's probably nothing," Mackenzie said to herself. "She's probably just singing in the bathroom again."

Suddenly, Lavender Brown burst into the room. "McGonagall's calling everyone down to the common room," she said. "Molly and Hermione have been Petrified."

Mackenzie's eyes widened, and she tried to play it off. "Very funny, Lavender," she said, turning back to her homework.

"No, I'm not kidding," Lavender Brown said, and Mackenzie turned around again. The smile that usually characterized Lavender was gone, replaced by an almost complacent frown. "They've been Petrified."

It finally sunk in. "Oh my God," Mackenzie said. "Come on."

The two ran down to the common room, where McGonagall was addressing the Gryffindors, including a forlorn-looking Harry and Ron standing beside her.

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening," she said. "No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."

Mackenzie had the feeling that the students would normally complain, but with the circumstances, they were deadly silent. It was a far cry from the rowdy bunch that had greeted Harry and Ron when they flew in on the flying car.

"I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward," McGonagall said, her voice quieter than ever.

She attempted to climb out of the door to the common room. Her awkward motions would've been funny had the situation not been so dire.

Mackenzie didn't know what to say as the group of children began to speculate. She somehow couldn't bring herself to show any emotion, as though she had used up all her tears long ago. It didn't seem like it could be real. It just... _couldn't._

* * *

Beatrix and Luna were making Butterbeer cap necklaces in the Ravenclaw common room when the entire House was summoned, and the room slowly filled with other students. Professor Flitwick walked into the room, standing on a stool next to the roaring fireplace.

"I regret to inform you that Hermione Granger, Molly Evans, and our House prefect, Penelope Clearwater, have all been Petrified."

The room fell silent. Even Luna stopped what she was doing and turned to listen.

"As we only have one prefect as of now, we shall have to be very prudent. We must help our neighbors, keep each other safe."

Beatrix's heart was beating faster and faster. She had barely heard anything that Flitwick had said - only _Molly, Petrified, prudent, help_ -

She started to run, squeezing through the crowd, trying to get to the door of the common room -

And Flitwick's arms were around her waist, holding her back. She tried to squirm free - she had to help her neighbor - she needed to get to the hospital wing - she needed to help Molly -

"It's okay, Beatrix," Flitwick said, carefully placing her on a plush blue chair. He drew his wand. " _Accio Handkerchief_."

A blue handkerchief flew out of someone's pocket, flying into Flitwick's hand. He gave the handkerchief to Beatrix. "Here you go," he said comfortingly.

She took the handkerchief and rubbed her cheeks, surprised to find them wet. She hadn't even realized she was crying.

* * *

Even Snape seemed upset about the events that had transpired. Zoë, Jonah, and Ava were standing together as he told Slytherin House the news.

"We must band together as one school, and stay as safe as we possibly can," Snape said, slowly and deliberately. "This means no more roaming in the halls, no more going to class without a teacher, and no more Quidditch for the time being. If you do not follow these rules, House points will be taken from Slytherin. Thank you."

Snape turned and left the room. The second the door closed, Jonah heard someone burst out laughing. He turned to see Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle snickering together.

"Did you hear that?" Draco said, barely intelligible through his laughter. "Three more Mudbloods! That'll show them!"

Zoë shook her head. "They have got to go."

"I know," Ava said. "You think there's anything we can do, though?"

"I don't know," Zoë said. "I don't want to lose any House points, but the only way we could help any of them is to leave the common room."

Jonah could hardly hear their conversation as his blood began to boil. He couldn't stand his friends - including the only person who had believed that he hadn't killed Madison - being defamed in such a terrible way. He could feel his left hand curl into a fist, his other subconsciously inching toward his hammer.

He didn't care if it meant losing House points. He didn't care if it meant expulsion - he had already stared down the barrel of that gun. He didn't even care if it meant that he would mess up the timeline beyond repair.

He was going to save Molly if it was the last thing he ever did.

* * *

She watched those images for hours - Stella in the hospital room, Mackenzie in the common room, Beatrix in the plush blue chair, Jonah looking at Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle as though he wanted to murder them. She floated by the bathroom, where Madison was hovering on the ground next to Opa's Petrified body, afraid to let a tear fall.

She smiled, knowing that something had been done. Knowing that something would change - and as she knew very well, any change to the past changes the present as well.

" _Disapparate_."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) I've realized recently that I haven't been writing as many scenes for Ava and Zo** **ë. I definitely want to include them in the story more, so I'll be working on that. It's also hard for me to type the umlaut on Zo** **ë's name, so that might have something to do with it.**

 **2) The title of the chapter is based on the song "Lead Us Out of the Night" from the musical _Come From Away._ The musical is about the thousands of people diverted to Gander, Newfoundland after the US air space was closed during 9/11, and the song is when the plane people learn _why_ they were diverted. It's a really moving scene, and while the situation in this chapter is much less dire than 9/11, I thought it carried the same sentiment.**

 **3) Jonah still has his hammer! The hammer is going to be a recurring element in the story, especially later on, when the books get really serious.**

 **4) Stella originally wanted to be Hufflepuff _Seeker_ , but I realized that her being Seeker would eliminate Cedric Diggory's involvement in the Quidditch match in _Prisoner of Azkaban_ , so I had her be Chaser instead.**

 **5) More foreshadowing when it comes to the cause of the whole adventure! Keep your guesses coming - I've gotten some good ones so far!**

 **6) While it's a more indirect reference than the _Come From Away_ reference, part of Stella's reaction is actually a reference to the musical _Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812._ See if you can spot it! (And no, I didn't forget the Oxford comma. Dave Malloy did.)**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	24. A Paradox of Epic Proportions

**Hi everybody! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 24:_**

 ** _A Paradox of Epic Proportions_**

" _Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.  
_ ' _Pipes,' he said. 'Pipes...Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls….'  
_ _Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.  
_ ' _The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!' he said hoarsely. 'What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in -'  
_ ' _-_ Moaning Myrtle's bathroom _,' said Harry."_

It had happened. Ginny had been taken into the Chamber. The trains were going tomorrow. Jonah should've felt relieved - everything would be fine. Harry and Ron would be on the case.

But Molly had been Petrified. And everything still felt wrong.

Molly's Petrification had changed something - maybe not something huge, but enough to affect things. Someone was involved in this who wasn't involved in the original plot. And how could he even guarantee that Harry would help Ron? Even though Ron had a connection to Ginny, Molly had never made up with them after the whole car incident on the first day. _Lousy way to go out,_ Jonah thought, _skeletons still stuck in the closet._

Jonah was sitting in the common room, waiting for something, for anything to happen. For Draco to come down and make a scene about how one of those "blood-traitor Weasleys" had been taken at last. For Zoë and Ava to come down and throw some sort of last-day party. He needed someone to say something, just to cut the silence.

Finally, he decided to say something himself. He looked up at the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, hanging above the fireplace forebodingly.

"I'm going to do it," he said. "I'm going to save Molly, and Ginny, and everyone else who's been affected by your monster."

The portrait said nothing.

"I'm going to help Harry Potter kill the Basilisk."

Still nothing.

"Well, are you going to say something or not?"

Silence.

"Well, thanks," Jonah said sarcastically. "Thanks for talking me down from my suicide mission."

He looked at the painting one more time. Quickly, he drew his wand and traced a curvy line, which became a cartoonish mustache, which planted itself right under Salazar's nose.

"Better," he said. Then he ran out the door.

* * *

Stella was in her room, rewatching the _Hamilton_ bootleg that she had recorded, when she heard a knock at the door. As quickly as she could, she hid the camera under her bed. "Come in!" she shouted.

Hannah Abbott walked in. "There's someone downstairs to see you," she said. "A Slytherin. I don't know his name, but he specifically asked for you."

"Weren't we, like, not supposed to leave our common rooms?" Stella asked.

"He's a Slytherin," Hannah said. "He probably Petrified his way in here."

"I'm sure he didn't," Stella said, biting her lip. She knew she couldn't reveal anything more, so she breezed past Hannah and started to walk, then run, down the stairs.

"I swear to God, if it's Draco -"

She opened the door to the common room.

"Jonah," she said, her angry face melting into relief. "You have no idea how good it is to -"

"Let's cut to the chase," he said, cutting her off. "I'm going to the Chamber of Secrets to help Harry kill the Basilisk. I want you to come with me."

Stella's eyes widened. "Jonah, the last time we interfered in a crucial plot point, somebody _died_. We could be killed - our friends could be killed -"

"Madison's involved again, too," Jonah said. "They found her socks after Justin and Nick's Petrification. And Molly's been Petrified. The timeline's already different - if we need to change things to keep history on track, so be it."

"This is a paradox of the most insane level," Stella said. "Changing history to get the same outcome - I mean, I really don't understand any of this. That's probably why I didn't like _Cursed Child_."

"Neither did I, but it's our reality now," Jonah said. "We need to go and help."

"But I forgot to bring my wand downstairs," Stella tried.

"Nope - you're not going to pull the lazy card on me," Jonah said. "Go up there and get your wand."

Stella rolled her eyes. "Be right back," she said. " _God,_ you're tenacious."

"Didn't you say that when Madison was -"

" _Exactly_ ," Stella said, turning away from Jonah and stomping up the stairs.

A few minutes later, she came back - with not only her wand, but a T-shirt that read "I am not throwing away my shot."

"They were selling these at _Hamilton_ ," she said. "I thought it was fitting. Now let's do this."

Jonah smiled as he and Stella walked to the exit. Right before they left, though, Stella stopped.

"Wait a minute," she said. "How did you get here without being discovered?"

Jonah drew his wand and pointed it at Stella, then at himself. Almost instantly, Stella watched as her body, then Jonah's, disappeared.

"Disillusionment Charm," Jonah said. "I got skills, son."

"I can do a Disillusionment Charm, too," Stella said quietly as they walked out the door. "I used it to look in the Mirror of Erised last Christmas."

"What did you see?" Jonah asked.

"Madison, my family, my friends - but I still thought Madison was gone forever then, so there was an explanation for the sappiness."

"What do you think you would see now?"

"Me, in my room, alone, watching that _Hamilton_ bootleg for the millionth time," Stella said. She could faintly hear Jonah laughing, and she smiled. _Basilisk, here we come_ , she thought determinedly.

* * *

The two time-travelers waited in the bathroom, invisible, for what seemed like forever. Stella and Jonah alternated as guard while the other caught a few minutes of sleep. Presently, Stella was awake, waiting for Harry, Ron, and Lockhart to walk in and open up the sink.

She couldn't erase the thought of Molly's confused face, frozen in time, lying on the cot in the hospital room.

 _That's why we're here_ , she tried to think, attempting to turn her devastation into adrenaline. _We're here to avenge Molly's Petrification, and the Petrification of everyone else who was innocent._

But Stella knew that she and Jonah were mice, waiting at the entrance to the lion's den. They were both Muggleborns - if anyone was to be Petrified, or even killed, in the Chamber of Secrets, it would be them.

 _It'll be worth it,_ Stella thought. _Every war has casualties._

But she still felt just a little bit helpless. She could see Madison, looking down at her.

"You let me go into the deep end," she said. "You let me go and expose Quirrell and get myself killed. You're a coward."

Her eyes were glassy.

"Madison?" Stella said quietly. "What are you doing?"

"Because of you and your plan, I am now dead," Madison said. "Everyone who you love will die around you, and you'll have no way of stopping them. Because of you, I joined a new cause."

"Madison?"

"One where I'd be appreciated, taken care of, not sent off like a lamb to the slaughter," Madison said, an evil grin growing on her face. "Ginny?"

Ginny stepped forward from behind Madison. "Stella, I'm sorry," she said, in a maniacal tone. "You lost."

Suddenly, Stella fell into the shadow of a large snake - the Basilisk. It hissed at her, but she didn't look up.

"Goodbye, old friend," Madison said, then said something in Parseltongue. The Basilisk lunged - Stella screamed -

* * *

" _Obliviate!_ "

Stella's eyes opened and she sat up, breathing heavily. "Ginny? Madison?"

But there was nobody in the room. The snake was gone.

"Jonah?" Stella said. Next to her, she could hear a voice grumble.

"What time is it?" he said.

"It's time," she replied simply.

After a few seconds of nothingness, Jonah appeared next to her.

"I undid your charm, too," Jonah said. Stella looked down to see that her body had reformed. "Are you ready?"

Stella sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be," she said, her voice trembling.

"So what happened while I was sleeping?" Jonah said as he stood up and then helped Stella up.

"Madison and Ginny were here," Stella said, her voice getting faster and faster. "And the Basilisk - and the eyes - and it lunged -"

"Stella," Jonah said quietly. "I think you fell asleep, too."

It finally dawned on Stella what had happened. It had all been a dream. She had fallen asleep, leaving both of them helpless. She had failed.

She started to cry softly, wrapping her arms around Jonah. After a moment's hesitation, he returned the hug, his face sullen and stiff.

"Don't worry," Jonah said. "We'll save Molly and Opa...and Madison. This time. But we need to get down there."

Stella nodded, breaking the hug. "Let's go."

Jonah nodded in reply, and the two walked over to the edge of the precipice where the sink used to be. "How are we getting down?" Jonah asked.

Stella thought for a moment, then grabbed her Hufflepuff tie and untied it from her neck. She drew her wand and pointed it at the tie, and slowly but surely, it morphed into a ladder.

"Transfiguration," she said, carefully lowering the ladder into the rocky cavern below. "And creativity."

Jonah smirked. "I'll give you that one," he said as he started to climb down. Stella held the ladder in place until he made it to the bottom, then she climbed down herself.

Stella turned the ladder on its side, and she and Jonah walked over the rungs to avoid the sharp, rough rocks. After a few minutes, they arrived at a wall of fallen rocks. Sitting next to the wall was Ron, leaning over an unconscious man - _Lockhart,_ Stella thought.

Ron looked up to see Stella and Jonah, standing on a ladder that had been turned into a bridge. "What are you guys doing down here?" he said. "Actually - never mind. At this point, I don't even want to know."

Jonah pointed his wand at one of the largest rocks, sitting on top of the pile. " _Wingardium Leviosa,_ " he said. The rock lifted up an inch and squeezed through, gently landing in front of the wall - a stepping stool of sorts.

"Harry's already past that wall," Ron said. "Should I come with you?"

"No," Stella said quickly. "Um - you need to stay with Lockhart. See if he wakes up - see how he's doing."

"Sounds good," Ron said. "And - whatever you're doing down here - good luck."

"Thanks," Jonah said. He stepped up on the rock, pulling himself up to the hole in the wall. In one swift movement, he swung his legs through the hole and pushed himself off, landing on the other side. "Your turn, Stella."

"Okay," Stella said. "Here we go." She stepped on the rock and reached her arms up, attempting to grab on to something. She found a handhold - and her right hand slipped, scraping against the rock.

"OW!" she screamed. "I TOTALLY WANT TO CURSE RIGHT NOW!"

"Please don't," Jonah and Ron said at the same time.

"Fine," Stella said. "Ooh, that hurts."

She tried again, using her legs to give her more leverage. After some agonizing climbing, she reached the top and jumped down.

"What did you hurt?" Jonah asked.

"My hand," Stella said, showing Jonah the red scrape on the palm of her right hand. "How are we going to fix this?"

" _Episkey,_ " Jonah said, pointing at the wound with his wand, and it began to seal up. "And creativity."

"Yeah, I deserved that," Stella said. She pointed her wand through the hole in the wall. " _Accio Ladder._ "

The ladder came soaring through, and Stella had to duck so that it didn't decapitate her. She set the ladder on the ground and started walking on the rungs, Jonah following her.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a grand room, with white marble and carved images of snakes everywhere.

"The Chamber of Secrets," Stella said quietly. Before she could say anything else, Jonah pulled her behind a column.

He put a finger to his lip - _Quiet._ Then he gestured a bit past the column, where a red-haired girl was lying on the floor while two dark-haired boys talked above her.

"Voldemort," said one of them ominously, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter…"

He drew his wand and wrote a name in fiery writing in the air - " _TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE_." He flicked his wand, and the letters rearranged themselves - " _I AM LORD VOLDEMORT_."

"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry — I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

After a pause, Harry spoke.

"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.

As if on cue, a sound almost like if a flute met a clarinet came from behind Stella and Jonah. "Oh my God," Stella mouthed. "Fawkes's singing 'Hedwig's Theme' -"

"I know," Jonah mouthed. "Now be quiet."

The music slowly grew louder until the phoenix burst from the top of a pillar, holding the Sorting Hat in its claws. It gave the hat to Harry.

After a bit of incredulity on Riddle's part, he started to laugh - a stereotypical evil laugh that somehow was still scary.

"A songbird and an old hat!" he said. "This is what Dumbledore sends! I have Ginny Weasley, I have Madison Clark, and you have a songbird and an old hat. What else will he send? A broken wand? A frayed piece of rope?"

Stella grabbed Jonah's hand and walked into the open, pulling him along. "Us," she said.

Harry and Tom turned. "Stella?" Harry asked.

"Stella?" Tom asked, confused.

"Stella…" Jonah said, angry.

"Jonah…" Stella said in the same tone.

"Jonah?" Tom asked.

"Jonah," Harry said.

"Jonah! Stella!" a voice said from behind both of them. A solidified Madison ran out from behind another pillar.

"Not yet!" Tom cried, exasperated. " _Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!_ "

Two bluish-white bursts of light burst from Harry's wand, held in Tom's hand. The first one pinned Madison against the pillar, and the other kept her in place.

"Help!" she cried, trying to fight the spell.

"Madison!" Stella cried.

"SILENCE!" Tom shouted, his shouts echoing off the marble walls. "Let us see what Dumbledore's aid can do for you, Harry Potter. It is my personal opinion that you do not have what it takes. I hope you will prove me wrong. I doubt you will."

He turned to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, looming over the Chamber, and said something in Parseltongue. Madison cringed, the voice louder in her ear than ever before - " _Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four._ "

Jonah gripped Stella's arm. Harry turned to look at the statue, Fawkes swaying on his shoulder.

Slytherin's mouth was opening, slowly but surely. "Close your eyes," Stella said. But Jonah couldn't move. Stella looked over, and she saw the look in Jonah's eyes. She had never seen him that terrified.

She pressed her hand over his eyes and closed hers as the snake burst from Slytherin's mouth. After a few seconds, she heard Fawkes singing, and she knew that they were safe.

"I'm going to save Madison," she said. "Close your eyes - please."

Jonah nodded, and when Stella drew her hand away, his eyes were closed.

She dove to the side of the Chamber and pointed her wand at Madison. " _Locomotor Madison!_ " she cried, and Madison fell from the wall.

Suddenly, she heard a hissing. Shielding her eyes from the yellow glow emanating from the snake's eyes, she watched as it fixed its eyes on Jonah. It formed an arc, about to pounce.

"JONAH!" she cried. She wanted to jump in and help, but it was her dream all over again. The Basilisk was about to kill Jonah, and she was frozen, helpless.

The Basilisk lunged - Stella screamed -

"NO!" a voice cried. Madison bounded across the Chamber, throwing herself in front of Jonah. In a split second, the same stone-grey that Molly had turned covered Madison, and the Basilisk caught her in its fangs. Realizing that it wasn't the person it had meant to get, it flung Madison's lifeless body against a column. Her stone hand hit the marble and broke off. The Basilisk retreated, about to lunge again, when Fawkes flew into its eyes and pierced them, blood flowing from them. The lights from the Basilisk's eyes disappeared; it could no longer Petrify anyone.

Everything happened before Stella could process it. All she knew was that Jonah was safe; and as long as he got out of the way, they could get Madison and watch from the sidelines.

"Jonah!" she said. "You can open your eyes."

With a shaky breath, Jonah opened his eyes. "What happened?"

"Run to your right!" she yelled, and almost instinctively, he followed her order.

She looked to make sure that the Basilisk was occupied and then ran, following Jonah to the right side of the Chamber. They both arrived at the lifeless figure of Madison, her arm outstretched, her hand lying a few feet away.

"No…" Stella said softly.

" _NO!_ " Tom Riddle cried at the snake. " _LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE CHILDREN ARE BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM! KILL THEM!_ "

"Oh, no," Jonah said. "The snake's after all of us."

"What do we do?" Stella said.

"We have to guide Harry - help him fight the Basilisk from what we know from the books," Jonah said. "He needs to put on the hat."

"Harry!" Stella shouted. "Put on the Sorting Hat!"

Harry looked at the hat, shrugged, as though to say, "This might as well happen," and jammed the hat onto his head. It smiled as Harry fell to the ground. He took the hat off and drew a sword.

"The Sword of Gryffindor," Jonah said. "I never thought I'd ever see it."

"Are you getting emotional?" Stella said.

"Yeah," Jonah said. "So?"

"True," Stella said. "Now fight the Basilisk, Harry! You can do it!"

" _KILL THEM! LEAVE THE BIRD! THEY'RE BEHIND YOU! SNIFF - SMELL THEM!_ "

Harry jumped to his feet, sword in hand.

"Dodge him!" Stella shouted. As the Basilisk lunged, almost drunkenly, Harry ran the other way. He raised the sword.

"STAB HIM IN THE MOUTH!" Jonah called.

Harry looked at Jonah, confused. Then he turned to see the Basilisk rearing towards him. He held the sword in both hands, threw his whole weight behind it, and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.

The snake and the boy parted, the sword releasing from the Basilisk, a fang lodged in Harry's arm.

"Get the fang out!" Stella cried.

Harry looked down, as if just noticing the deadly tooth. He pulled it out, then collapsed on the ground.

"FAWKES!" Jonah shouted.

The phoenix flew down and landed next to Harry.

"Fawkes…" said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes…"

The bird lay its head near the wound as Tom Riddle stepped closer and closer.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," he said. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."

Stella went to say something, but Jonah stopped her. "We're back on track," he mouthed.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."

"I forgot how passive-aggressive Riddle is," Stella said quietly. "He's got a real sarcastic streak."

"So ends the famous Harry Potter," Riddle said, the smile on his face growing and growing. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, failed by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry...She bought you twelve years of borrowed time...but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must…"

Stella and Jonah watched, huddled together next to Madison's body, as Harry grew weaker, and weaker, and weaker...and then began to grow strong again.

The look on Riddle's face changed abruptly. "Get away, bird," he said, a bit of panic entering his voice. "Get away from him - I said, _get away_ -"

He pointed his wand at Fawkes. A golden light shot out of it, hitting Fawkes's claws. Barely harmed, Fawkes flew from Harry's side.

"Phoenix tears…" Riddle said. "Of course...healing powers...I forgot...But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter...and them, watching, helpless."

He gestured to Stella and Jonah.

"How about I kill the one person on whom your lives depend?" he said.

Jonah gripped Stella's arm - not out of fear this time, but urging her to restrain herself. She nodded.

"An amazing thing, these silent heroes," Riddle said. "Let us begin, Harry. You and me...you and me…"

He raised his wand - and then Fawkes flew back, the diary in his claws. He dropped it into Harry's lap.

He and Riddle looked at each other for a split second. Jonah and Stella watched, wondering - after what they had done - would it be enough?

And then Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:**

 **1) Lots of references in this chapter! _Wonder, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Tangled the Series, Tangled_ (the movie), _Wicked,_ one of Mindy Kaling's memoirs, John Mulaney's _New In Town_ special, _Jesus Christ Superstar,_ and _Hamilton_.**

 **2) I really enjoyed writing the dream sequence with Madison and Ginny taunting Stella. I read a scene where someone falls asleep but didn't realize it in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was little, and I've always wanted to write a scene like that.**

 **3) The Stella/Jonah repetition is one of Madison's inspiration's favorite parts in the series.**

 **4) I love Ron's reaction to all the chaos - the idea of just kind of giving up on understanding is something that I think fits Ron really well.**

 **5) Poor Madison. Her inspiration came up with the idea of her character getting Petrified, so I had her jump in front of Jonah. (Fun fact - jumping in front of someone or something to save it was one of the original ideas for Madison's original death.)**

 **6) Stella's comment about Riddle's snark is something that I thought when I was rereading the chapter on which this part of the story was based.**

 **7) Writing the paragraph in which Madison is Petrified and the Basilisk's eyes are stabbed was a challenge, but really fun. I recently learned about stream-of-consciousness writing in modernist works (like Franz Kafka's writing), and I thought it would be cool to incorporate it a bit in this part. It almost makes it more dramatic, to have everything happen at once.**

 **8) I love Jonah drawing the cartoon mustache on Salazar Slytherin's portrait's face. It's so petty and meaningless and hilarious.**

 **9) The idea of time traveling and, as Stella puts it, "changing history to get the same outcome," will come in handy later on.**

 **10) If you're wondering where the slide to the Chamber went, I realized while writing this chapter that I had forgotten to include it in earlier sections of the story. I guess I had the movie on my mind, and I decided to make this part a little bit more like the movie in that fashion. It also sets up the "creativity" punchline, which I think is pretty darn** **funny.**

 **11) Finally, some of Tom's speech is direct from the original book. It's always fun seeing Tom's speech, so dramatic and well-worded, and just a few lines before, to have a character say "I TOTALLY WANT TO CURSE RIGHT NOW!" The writing whiplash adds to the absurdity of the story, and I love it.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


	25. How to Explain

**Hi everybody! It's time to wrap up Chamber of Secrets! I'm really excited for what comes next - Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorite books, and I hope you enjoy it. There are a few hints to what's coming next book, so see if you can find anything.**

 **(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 25:_**

 ** _How to Explain_**

"' _Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away,' Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. 'This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.' He strode over to the door and opened it. 'Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up,' he added, twinkling kindly down at her. 'You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice - I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment.'"_

Stella and Jonah stood behind Harry, their mouths open, as he drew the Basilisk fang from the diary. Riddle was gone. The day had been saved.

Suddenly, a faint moan could be heard from the end of the Chamber.

"Ginny," all three of them said at once, and they ran over to her as she began to wake. Her skin was ice-cold, but slowly growing warmer and less pale. Her eyes opened - deep brown, soft yet piercing, kind yet stern. _She definitely got that from her mother,_ Stella thought.

Her eyes darted from the Basilisk to Harry to the diary, and she let out a gasp as she realized what had happened.

"Harry - Stella - Jonah - I tried to tell you, but I - I couldn't - not in front of Percy - it was me - but I swear - I - I didn't mean to -"

"It's okay," Stella said, wrapping Ginny in a hug. "Riddle's gone. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm going - to - to be expelled!" she said, sobbing as Jonah and Harry joined the hug. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts forever - and now - now I'll have to leave and - _what'll Mum and Dad say_?"

"You don't have to worry," Jonah said. "Everything's going to be fine. You did great, Ginny."

Fawkes swooped over, gesturing as though it was time to leave.

"Once Dumbledore knows the story," Harry said, "he'll know that you were innocent. He shouldn't punish you."

"He won't," Stella said. "And if he does, we will challenge him."

"And thanks to Stella's scene at the Duelling Club, we now know how to do that," Jonah said. Ginny smiled through her tears - a small sign that everything would be okay.

They broke the hug, and Harry helped Ginny to her feet. They walked through the tunnel, Jonah carrying Madison's Petrified body and Stella carrying her hand, using the ladder as a bridge to the wall of rocks.

"Ron!" Harry called. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"

Ron let out a strangled cry as Stella and Jonah climbed through the hole in the rock wall. Ginny followed, Harry spotting her. Finally, Harry jumped through and landed on the rocks below. Jonah drew his wand and cried, " _Accio Ladder!_ "

"Now duck," Stella warned. Jonah obeyed, and the ladder soared over his head.

"So what happened?" Ron said.

"We'll tell you later," Jonah responded. "What happened to Lockhart?"

"He's lost all his memory," Ron said. "Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. He's a danger to himself."

"Well, we need to get him - and ourselves - up there," Stella said. "I'll set up the ladder."

She grabbed the ladder and climbed up. "I can always _Accio_ you guys up here," she said. "It might be hard for you to climb with so much in your hands."

"Sounds good," Harry said. "You're going to have to teach me that spell."

"In a year or two, maybe," Stella said. She pointed her wand at each person, waiting below her, and called out the spell. They floated up and landed lightly on the ledge of where the sink used to be. Once the last person arrived on top, the marble spewed around the room began to reform into the grand sink.

Harry turned to see Moaning Myrtle goggling at them.

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said, wiping the blood off his glasses.

"Where now?" Ron said. Harry gestured to Fawkes, glowing gold along the corridor.

"We'll bring Madison to the hospital room," Jonah said. "Good luck!"

Harry waved at the two and then ran, following Fawkes to McGonagall's office.

Jonah and Stella watched him, and then looked at each other. For the first time, it seemed like they could let out their breath.

* * *

"NO!" she cried, watching, floating next to the window. It had all gone wrong. Somehow, those brats had kept the story from escalating out of control. Molly and Madison would be revived by the Mandrake juice, and everything would return to normal.

And then she remembered. This was only second year. The children still had five years to mess it all up - and undoubtedly, they would. Someone would find the books lying around, or their presence would cause a House to get extra points, or something would happen.

She just had to wait.

* * *

Madam Pomfrey gave the Mandrake juice to Madison first. Slowly, the grey tinge of Madison's body disappeared, and she returned to normal. Once the stone was completely gone, Madison seemed to almost continue to lunge, as if her brain had also been frozen in time.

"Madison, Madison, it's alright," Jonah said. "You're safe now - well, almost."

"What do you mean?" Madison said. Then she looked down at her hand - well, what _used_ to be her hand.

"Oh, come on!" she cried. "Why does this always happen to me?"

She grabbed her severed hand in her other hand, shaking it - and then she gasped.

For as Madison touched her hand, it began to lose its stony appearance, too. She let go of it, and in a flash, it had reattached itself to her arm.

"Whoa," Stella said. "I was _not_ expecting that."

"Me, either," Madison said. "So what happened after I was Petrified?"

"We ran out of the way and helped Harry do exactly what he was supposed to do," Jonah said. "Everything's back the way it was. You were pretty brilliant yourself, leaving your unicorn sock at Justin's Petrification."

"Thanks," Madison said quietly. "I'm sorry for all of that, by the way. I tried to get away from all of it, but he threatened to hurt you guys. I couldn't let that happen."

"We understand," Stella said. "Thank you."

Madison nodded. "Now let's get Molly un-Petrified and see if she feels the same way."

"Sounds good," Madam Pomfrey said; to be honest, Stella had forgotten she was in the room. She walked over to Molly and gave her the Mandrake juice.

Slowly, Molly's body returned to normal, and once the grey had completely disappeared, her mind reactivated. "Madison, I don't -" she said, before realizing that her surroundings had changed. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital wing," Jonah said. "You were Petrified."

Slowly, Molly put the pieces together. She looked over at Madison. For a second, Madison was worried that Molly didn't understand, that this would be the end.

But then Molly burst into tears. "Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay!" she said. "I was so worried - I thought Riddle had you - I thought you were gone -"

She jumped up from the bed and ran over to give the solidified Madison a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay, too," Madison said. "Now let's wake up the others and keep history on track."

Molly smiled. She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but she did know one thing:

They had won.

* * *

Molly got back to the common room to see Harry sitting on one of the plush red chairs near the fireplace. His face was pale, his hair was messy, and his eyes had large bags underneath them.

"Hey," she said, and Harry looked up.

"Hey," he said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Listen -" Molly said. "We've both been through a lot this year, and -"

"I know, I know," he said. "Truce?"

Molly smiled and reached out her hand. Harry shook it. They were quiet for a while.

"So you wanna get some food?" she asked.

Harry's eyes lit up. He nodded, almost frantically. "Food always helps."

Molly suppressed a laugh as she and Harry walked to the door of the common room.

* * *

It wasn't long after that Molly and the other time-travelers were stepping off the Hogwarts Express.

"Any Broadway musicals this year, Stella?" Molly asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I might try to win tickets for Lin's last show in _Hamilton_ , but that's probably going to be impossible. There's a show called _Waitress_ that Sara Bareilles wrote the music for, and I've heard that's good."

"Oh, that sounds cool!" Molly said. "I might have to see that one, too."

Madison was walking over to everyone, hugging goodbye. Molly had solidified her right before they left, and she was going to Hermione's house over the summer vacation.

"It'll be interesting," Madison said. "That _Hocus Pocus_ movie comes out in July, and I love that one, so hopefully Hermione likes it, too."

"Nice," Molly said. "We watched that movie in 5th grade, on one of those old-time TVs in the corner of the classroom that we had to crane our necks to see. I was the only person who just wanted to read that day."

"Did you enjoy the movie?" Madison asked.

Molly shrugged. "Kinda."

"Good enough for me," Madison said, giving Molly one last hug. "See you in September."

She walked over to where Hermione was standing with her parents. "Madison, this is my mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Hermione said. "They're Muggles, so they might be a little uncomfortable with having a solidified dead person in their house at first, but they should be fine eventually."

"It's an honor," Mr. Granger said, shaking Madison's hand daintily. "Hermione's told us so much about you."

"Why, thank you," Madison said, shaking Mr. Granger's hand and then Mrs. Granger's. "It'll be a fun vacation, I can promise you that."

Molly smiled as she watched Madison's interaction with them. "Alright, whoever you are," she said. "It's time."

Almost instantly, it started to rain. "Huddle, everybody!" Ava called, and the group held onto each other. Stella let out a little cry - _whoever's been transporting us must've touched her this time,_ Molly thought.

She wasn't sure if anyone else heard it, but Molly could hear a slight whisper from behind her.

"Disapparate."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Here's this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts.**

 **1) As I was rereading Chamber of Secrets for this section, I knew there was one thing that needed to happen: Ginny needed a hug. (And I was able to fit in a callback to the whole "Ten Duel Commandments" thing.)**

 **2) I actually got to see Waitress earlier this year! It was really good.**

 **3) Madison's inspiration came up with the idea for both the thing with Madison's hand and her visiting the Grangers over break.**

 **4) Molly's reaction to everything after being un-Petrified is kinda based on a moment in Season 2 of The Good Place involving Michael. See if you can spot it!**

 **5) The scene with Harry was actually something I wrote a few months after I wrote the rest of the chapter. I realized I hadn't really tied up the Molly/Harry conflict, so I added the little scene (plus the callback to one of my favorite Stella lines from Philosopher's Stone) as kind of a reminder how ridiculous Molly's reaction was and how sometimes, all you need is time to heal wounds. And food always helps.**

 **6) The Hocus Pocus story is actually something that happened to me in fifth grade. Do any of you guys remember those TVs that hung from the corner of the classroom and were so incredibly small? I hated those things.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!**


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